The Magpie Lament
by WikketKrikket
Summary: Giftfic, AU, HikaHaru In this world, heroes are made by villians, and love, too quickly lost, cannot cross that line. Decisions, choices, lies, betrayal and love behind it all. In three parts, Author name changed from Waffles4eva
1. Magpie

A/N: Well, here we are, another new fic; this time it's a gift fic for my little sister, the **PockyPirate. **It was a stupidly long one-shot, so I split it into three. If you're wondering where it came from; and so am I; the original concept was: 'The only thing she'd like better than Ouran… is Ouran with a SWORD'. So. Please enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own. There.

The Magpie Lament

Chapter One: The Magpie

There was commotion in the streets that day. This was not unusual, for it was the day of the week when the vendors would risk the hot sun and the sand and the flies to open their stalls to sell whatever feeble produce the surrounding desert could provide, or what the traders and merchants had bought with them from other cities. Commotion was a natural result of the people that bustled back and forth, hoods drawn up against the sun, trying to get their wares and get out of the sun again. The only reason anyone gave the passing party any attention was to part out of the way; otherwise, they could have been part of the scenery. Enforcers were constantly ferrying petty thieves towards the courts on market days, when the pickings were so ready. This criminal, though, seemed to be protesting even more then usual.

"I'm telling you, I had nothing to do with it!"

The enforcer smirked. "I'm sure. Look, it was a man with red hair and I don't see many people fitting that description round here!"

"Oh, so you automatically assume-"

"Red hair! There ain't any mistaking it and there's only one guy in this city with that kinda marking, so I'd stop struggling before I feel less like being nice to you!"

One or two people in the crowd were watching as the man- his hair undeniably red- protested against the ropes the man was attempting to drag him along with. Most of them were simply bored. One had more of a reason, and, moral fibre asserting itself, stepped forward, in the path of the enforcer.

"Excuse me. What has this man done?"

"I don't have time to answer your questions, sir. Sooner he's off the streets the better."

"I believe it is the citizen's right to know, so I suggest you answer promptly."

The enforcer scowled. More people were watching now, and mumbling to themselves. This person wasn't particularly tall, cloaked like everyone else, with dust mask up because there was a breeze blowing that day. Even so, he seemed to have an air of importance, and he certainly seemed well-learnt.

"He robbed that big manor house, didn't he?" The enforcer answered. "Crept in there in there yesterday. Owner came home just in time to see this guy hopping over the fence after a sack full of stolen goods! Took us all night to find him, stupid criminal."

"This man?" An eyebrow was raised. "That's impossible."

"Why?"

"He was with me." There was no uncertainty in the voice. "From dawn until well after night fall. He has been assisting with digging a well into my land, and then had a late supper. I can show you the paperwork if you wish, I came out to see about paying him."

And the papers were produced, all official, no doubting them; and unable to do much else, the redhead was untied.

"Hey, no hard feelings." He taunted the enforcer. "Just do a better job next time! You'll be arresting a cat next if it happens to be ginger…" He seemed relieved, but the enforcer simply grunted something at him about not causing any more trouble and went to resume the search for the criminal. The previously accused ran after his saviour.

"Thanks." He said, simply, with a smile. "This hair colour's a burden, sometimes…"

"I just hope you haven't been in trouble, Kaoru." He turned to look at his worker, and brown eyes were visible. "There have been a spate of burglaries recently, all with a red-haired perpetrator, and I can't help but wonder…"

"How could it be me?" Kaoru protested, getting rather frustrated. "I was working at your place all day, and hard work it was too! Even you haven't figured out how a man can be in two places at once yet, Haruhi! Let me know if you ever do, I could always use more time- I can hardly afford to live…"

Her eyes were still narrowed in suspicion. "You'll get your fair wage and nothing else. I still think you're up to something…You're behaving oddly, and if it doesn't stop I will get to the bottom of it. Here, anyway, you ungrateful fool."

Kaoru took the coins without hesitation, eyes wandering over gold. "Hey! This is a bit short, isn't it?"

She was already walking away. "Consider that compensation for making me draw attention to myself." She replied, with a hint of a laugh, and was absorbed into the crowd. Kaoru watched for a moment, and smiled. Then he turned, and quickly ducked behind one of the stalls. He flipped a coin to the owner, grabbing some fruit, and strolled along. He was a free man now, and only criminals ran. However, as he found himself wandering dark alleys that gradually got narrower as the houses got closer together, he walked quicker, and only when he was sure no-one was looking, slipped into the ramshackle old building that was so close to falling down you'd have to be mad to set foot inside it. Which was why he had it to himself.

Almost, anyway.

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

Thanks to the trouble in the market, Haruhi was a few minutes late to the sandstone building that was her workplace that morning. She stepped in tentatively, pulling down her dust mask and lowering the hood of the cotton cloak before beginning to fumble with the tie that kept it together at the neck.

"Sorry I'm late, sir." She said, taking it off and hanging it next to her bosses'. "I had to bail out another innocent one of those idiot over-enthusiastic enforcers arrested. The guy didn't even realise who I was!"

"Hmm. And would this 'innocent' be Kaoru Hitachiin again?"

Haruhi turned slowly, and faced her boss, who sat behind his desk. Hers sat in another corner of the room; and they were the only occupants. Today, the holding cell was empty. Which probably wasn't a good thing, at least not as far as Kyouya was concerned. He was young to be heading a town's law enforcers, as far as Commandants went, but this did not seem to be detrimental at all. At least, if it was, he'd be unimaginably good at his job when he was into middle-age. Haruhi could never quite decide if she was pleased to be working as his second-in-command or not. He was very good, trusted her opinion, but was that little bit _too _perceptive. She had only just got this job over the other candidates by the skin of her teeth; her lack of strength compensated in agility and mental ability.

The only flaw was, she hadn't been totally honest. There were no women allowed in the enforcers. And Haruhi had _really _wanted to be an enforcer. So she simply 'became' a man. Or rather, disguised herself as one. Then there was the matter of 'editing' her papers to have her as a registered male citizen rather then a female one. The editor happened to be a man she had met on first coming to town, who had been found sitting innocently next to the empty glass that a few seconds before had been full of Haruhi's drink. Kaoru swore to this day that he didn't do it, but he fixed her papers for her and even helped with the disguise. He hadn't batted an eye at doing this _slightly _illegal process, but Haruhi didn't think he was a thief. She was sure of it, in fact; and consoled herself that she had more then made up for these alterations of her past with her work.

Of course, Kyouya was not so convinced of Kaoru's innocence.

"It's physically impossible that it was him. He's had an alibi every time, Kyouya- and I took the day off to watch him work yesterday- there's no tricks." Haruhi said, firmly. "There's just no way he robbed the manor."

"Exactly." Kyouya frowned. "The mere fact he's had such a sound alibi every time makes it suspicious…It seems he's hiding something."

"Maybe so." Haruhi acknowledged. There was no denying it, she was sure there was more to Kaoru then he perhaps let on. For example, his mood swings. Some times, he could be quietly companionable and friendly, witty, but also quite shy; but other days he seemed to come into his own, unable to hold the witticisms back, falling into sarcasm and cheek, a wilder side that seemingly came out at random. She supposed he was just in a different mood, but she couldn't help but have grown a little fond of that unpredictability. Unpredictability that she had to admit loaned suspicion. "Still, if he's up to something, it's nothing illegal. He's not responsible for these burglaries unless he's got more then a dozen witnesses bribed to his side. One or two are the victims, for heaven's sake."

Kyouya nodded. They'd been through this a dozen times, and without need for modesty, he and Haruhi were the best. If there was a trick, chances were one of them would have seen through it by now. There had to be something else, a different angle. "Even so, the evidence is against him. All the reports, where we have eye-witnesses, say a red-haired man; and guess who the only red head in town is?"

"The only red-head we _know _of." Haruhi corrected.

"The only one we know of." Kyouya conceded. "But we can't search every building in town. Our thief would be alerted long before we got to him." He steeped his hands and leant on the desk. "We need to catch this guy soon, Haruhi. If he's targeting Tamaki's place now this could be very bad for us."

Haruhi nodded again, sitting down at her own desk, and looking again at the initial statement Tamaki had given them. "He says the items he got were of little value… you're expecting him to go back?"

"Correct." Kyouya nodded this time. "I doubt I need remind you that some twenty-five percent of this town's economy is reliant on his investment or land; and that's discounting the generous donations he feels the need to make. Tamaki can be rather fickle when he's wound up. Falling out of his favour would not be good for us."

"He's an old friend of yours, though, isn't he? I thought you served with him…"

Kyouya sighed as if being reminded of the two horrible years every young man was obliged to spend ridding the desert of monsters and creatures of night was simply exasperating. Or perhaps it was being reminded of his past with the town's largest benefactor. "I did serve with him, yes, but that's irrelevant at the moment. Just trust me when I say it's best not to let him get too deep into his own idiotic theories." He suddenly straightened up a little. "What about you, Haruhi? You're only a year younger then me, our services must have crossed over. What was your regiment?"

The skin on the back of Haruhi's neck crawled uncomfortably. Her boss had the most unfortunate habit of springing this sort of questioning on her whenever she did something that was in her right but that he didn't approve of. She didn't know whether it was paranoia or if he really did suspect, but either way, she hastened to answer. "I was special ops, sir." She answered, reverting back to formality that rarely stood up in private. "Contracted out to the Silent Guild, Absonse Division. Spent most of my time crawling in and out of sink holes looking for old mines left from the war or moles. Those things got vicious in mating season." She forced a laugh. The information had been printed on her application form, of course, under 'previous employment', and the necessary discharge papers provided. The short anecdote had come from the same place as the papers, and she could only hope Kyouya chose not to question her further.

He didn't.

It was worse.

"Hmm," He mused, smirk broadening. "How odd. You never mentioned you served on the very same division as Kaoru Hitachiin. You always said you met him when you arrived in town."

Haruhi blinked at him, for a moment taken aback. The truth was she hadn't set foot on desert sand, had arrived in by bus two years ago now, and hadn't thought to question the details she had been supplied with, not wanting to complicate things. And now, she had to fabricate a past for herself and fast- things couldn't be more awkward. "Ah, you may well be right. But in the Silent Division, you keep yourself to yourself. When you're in those holes there's only you; it doesn't matter who's on the other end of the rope. They didn't let friendships develop, didn't want us to be too trusting, I suppose."

For one of her lies, it was actually fairly convincing. Kyouya's face, as usual, gave nothing away; and Haruhi was left again to wonder if he knew. However, he moved away from the subject.

"I see." He stood suddenly. "Well, I may just have a few questions for Mr Hitachiin."

Haruhi felt her temper flare up. "With respect, Kyouya, does that mean you're suspecting me, too?"

"Before that, however," Kyouya continued as though the interruption had not happened. "I think we'd best go back to the manor house and ask our more-money-than-sense victim to be more specific in his description."

It was a brief respite. Haruhi knew, unless they could crack this one soon, Kaoru would be back in custody and, if he was sent down, she would be too. After all, if he had perpetrated the crime, he could not have been- as she had insisted- digging a well in her back garden.

There was simply no way he could be in two places at once.

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

Having watched Haruhi be absorbed into the crowd, probably heading towards her days work; of which, though she did not know it, he caused a great deal of, the freed red-head had headed home. He casually ate an apple as he went, the only signs of irritation that he bit slightly harder then necessary before lifting the flap and heading into a derelict building which was almost empty.

"Kaoru!" He snapped, throwing the remainder of his fruit out of the door before letting it flap shut. "Are you _trying _to hang me?!"

Another youth had appeared, identical in every way to the first, though looking slightly apprehensive. "Why? What happened, Hikaru?"

"I got arrested for the manor job! And all we got anyway were a few lousy trinkets!" Hikaru rolled his eyes as Kaoru's widened.

"What? That's impossible, I'm much more light footed then you. Who saw me?"

"Does it matter? Thing is, they're onto us. Or rather, on to you. They still can't prove us guilty." A smile crept onto his face. "After all, as I said to Haruhi, there's no way Kaoru Hitachiin could be in two places at once. And he was at Haruhi's all day yesterday digging a well for pittance."

"She didn't pay you?"

"She did. Minus bail. Because apparently she can't afford to draw attention to herself in public."

Kaoru shook his head. "I always said she was a strange girl. And she hasn't rumbled you?"

"Not yet. But you better 'bump into' her tomorrow and throw her off."

"Alright. Maybe I'll remind her what we know, too. Just in case."

"Just in case." Hikaru agreed, tipping the gold onto the table.

He didn't tell his brother that he'd actually paid for his food that day. That was a bad habit, and something Kaoru was far too fond of doing.

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

"There must be something else. Think!"

"Kyouya, there's nothing else! Please calm down!"

Haruhi was hovering uncomfortably on the edge of this exchange. Kyouya would never have employed such a snappy tone with the run-of-the-mill crime victim. Not without saying 'Sir' at the end, anyway. She knew that Tamaki was the closest thing to a friend Kyouya let himself have, they went back, and the familiarity made them all a little less professional. Haruhi herself didn't quite know how to behave. She had met Tamaki a few times herself, in various town events and he always seemed nice enough. It helped that he was the son of the mayor, too; though the mayor governed several places and very rarely came this far out into the desert. She'd assumed at first Tamaki was there to report back, as it were, but it seemed that was not the case; for it was clear Tamaki loved this sand-swept excuse for a home. He'd bought money to the place, and made the land workable; and Kyouya had taken over from a tired out, resigned Commandant and made the place safe and habitable. That's how the stories went, anyway. Local legends would claim that between them the two pulled the town back from the brink of dying out.

However, it seemed one tiny nest of crime remained. And it served to irritate Kyouya immensely.

"Tamaki." He tried, pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration. "I don't think you quite understand. We can't bring this scum to justice unless you give us more information!"

"I've nothing more to tell you." Tamaki looked almost amused. "Kyouya, stop pacing and sit down; if you don't lighten up you'll go bald- and that would be a tragedy for us all!"

"This isn't a social visit." Kyouya growled, but sank into a chair beside Haruhi anyway. "I have a job to do, and right now, it's being very _difficult_."

"I've given you all the description I can." Tamaki maintained, easily. "I was returning home from visiting in the next town, and I was thinking of the very nice cakes I'd been able to sample, when I suddenly noticed a flash of red in the corner of my vision. I immediately turned to the window and saw a red-haired man disappearing over the fence with a sack of my treasured possessions! I must admit, I was shocked! Of course, I immediately gave chase, but the fence defeated me, and I thought my time would be better spent looking for clues! I found out what was missing, though I'd obviously interrupted as they had only taken trinkets of little value." He suddenly looked mournful. "Except, they did get that pencil you gave me in the desert, Kyouya. I'm sorry! I _knew _I should have put it in the safe! But I like to see it out, and use it, and remember the true depth of-"

"Shut up." Kyouya commanded. "It was just so you'd stop whining about not being able to write home."

"But, Kyouya, it was the first thing you ever gave me! The first sign of our true and deep bond of friendship! I _treasured _it!"

"Tamaki...!"

"I understand now, Kyouya! You're so anxious to catch these thieves so you can retrieve the symbol of our friendship! But never fear! Our bond is stronger then a mere thief can snatch away…"

Tamaki continued to rant, and Haruhi couldn't help but snicker behind her hand. Kyouya's face was a picture. Even over all the noise, Haruhi could hear his patience snap.

"Tamaki! Be quiet! I wish to catch these criminals so that they can be dealt with accordingly! There have been a spate of robberies and I intend to put a stop to them before this town is back to the dust-filled hell hole it was when we got here!"

"You sound like you'll be enforcing the death penalty." Tamaki remarked, and the hint of a grin played on his face. "It's just one thief- and a jolly clever one, I'd say, as he managed to get in here and out again!"

"When you're quite finished admiring the people that liberated you of your possessions," Kyouya interjected coldly, "Perhaps we could discuss what happens next."

"Next?" Tamaki was habitually oblivious. Haruhi, knowing Kyouya had no patience for explaining himself, hurriedly stepped in.

"Well, we're assuming that they're going to come back." She said, and Tamaki immediately gave her his full attention. "You said it yourself, you interrupted. We still haven't got any leads-"

"Not anymore." Kyouya put in, referring to Haruhi's earlier dismissal of their only suspect. Haruhi continued over the top of him without a hesitation.

"So we're expecting them to come back and try to get something of more value."

"Ah, I see…" Tamaki answered, looking slightly troubled. "Well, what are we to do…?"

"We wait for him." Kyouya answered, sounding rather smug. "And we catch him."

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

"Hikaru…" Kaoru spoke tentatively, and Hikaru turned from what he was doing. He had noticed, of course, that his brother had been acting strangely ever since he had returned home, and had assumed Kaoru was just feeling guilty for nearly getting them caught. Nearly, but not quite. That's why this set-up was so sweet. Being identical let them share an identity, to live under one name, and to be seen as one man. One man who was always accounted for far from whatever robbery was taking place. They took it in turns, of course, to provide the alibi or to do the job; took it in turns to be seen or not to be seen under any circumstances. Kaoru, the more patient and light-footed of the brothers, had been the obvious choice for the manor job- Hikaru was a far more in-and-out sort of guy and would have fallen straight into any of the fancy traps. Kaoru had got in alright, but the owner had returned early. He'd gotten out alright, too, but without anything of real value; and Hikaru had been pulled in for the entire affair. Thank goodness Haruhi was convinced of their innocence, perhaps because it helped her deal with her own guilt of fraud. Still, it got them off the hook for another day, and Kaoru needn't have spoken in such a way.

"Yeah?" Hikaru answered.

"About the manor job…" Kaoru continued. "I got in there, just about, and there's a ton of great stuff…"

"That's why you're going back, isn't it?" Hikaru shrugged. "Though, better leave it a bit; till they relax. Besides, Haruhi reckons 'Kaoru' is acting funny, and she's our best alibi. You need to throw her off."

"Um, actually, that's the thing…" Kaoru answered, delicately. "You don't understand. The set up in there is unlike anything I've seen- the guy has electric, I reckon, some kind of a generator in the basement. He's rolling in it!"

"And so will we, when we empty the place." Hikaru grinned cockily. "You can handle the stuff, surely?"

"No, not really… I set off most of them." Kaoru confessed. "I'm lucky to have got out, and that no-one heard the alarms. But I knew you want to go back. So… I called in a favour."

Hikaru blinked, and then glowered at him. "What?!"

"I can't help it, Kyouya's bound to increase it even more, and the only way I'm getting back in there is with a bit of expert assistance!" Kaoru hastened to move the conversation on. "Anyway, if I'm with Haruhi, you're going to have to go with them to stake it out."

"No way."

"Hikaru…"

"Look, _I'll _go with Haruhi, then."

"But-"

"Calm down. I can act like you. No problem. Everyone else believes it, don't they? She's just a little more perceptive then most. All I'll do is argue with him, anyway. So _you _go. Makes more sense, you'll be the one to go in there anyway. No sweat."

"Okay." Kaoru gave a gentle smile. "Don't forget she's suspicious of us, Hikaru. Best behaviour. No overly-cocky remarks."

Hikaru gave a jaunty wink. "I can be a gentleman. She'll be too bowled over by our charms to notice much."

Kaoru rolled his eyes. "Oh, joy. And the rest of the world will think we're flirting with a man."

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

_Bellowing beyond the door._

_"Open up, old man!"_

_"We want them, now!"_

_"We want them out of here!"_

_"Or dead!"_

_A placid voice amidst the shouting._

_"My, I don't think I'll be opening up to that…"_

_"We'll break down the door, then!"_

_"We should never have let them in to begin with!"_

_"Last chance, old man!"_

_"No! They're just children!"_

_"Then we're coming in!"_

_"Run boys! Run! Go on! Run!"_

_Banging, and the crash as the door fell._

_"Run! Run, far away!"_

_The noise of chaos fading away._

_"Run…!"_

Hikaru awoke, and ran a shaking hand over his wet face. He hated those dreams, that released a weakness long since locked away. He growled with annoyance and dragged his mind away from the past, and towards the future. Tomorrow, for instance. Tomorrow, they would come; and personal feelings aside, they could soon be rich. And tomorrow, he had a day off, spent in the best of company. A day spent with the first person he'd grown to like since the man in his nightmares.

Naturally, though, it was just business. Everything in his life was business.

He took his hand away, and in the first blue lights of the sun examined a small mark at the base of his thumb. At first glance, it appeared to be a mere birthmark, or a mole. Closer inspection may have brought attention to the fact it's shape resembled a bird, but only if you knew what it was could you have identified it's form. The mark of a true thief, the signature of an unwritten contract. A declaration of honour amongst thieves. The Mark of the Magpie.

Hikaru and his brother were proud bearers of this mark. But they weren't the best, not really. The best thieves were widely accepted not to be known- indeed, Hikaru reasoned, the matter of the Hitachiin brothers not being counted with them with this clever little scam and their history was merely because they had to stay totally secret. Yet, second or third to those high class mysteries were the legends; some of whom arrived at the city's back roads as dawn tinged the sky pink and orange. Another blisteringly hot day in the desert was to come, and the man the twins struck out to meet probably wouldn't like it.

But he had come. Because he had been called.

The mark was a binding agreement to the Code of the Magpie. This was an ingenious system used by thieves the world over for sophisticated communication, based on the calls of the only creatures who could travel unnoticed anywhere, who's sounds would not be counted as odd or unexpected at any of the far corners of the world. The birds of the air provided words enough, beginning with the distinctive caw of the magpie. When Kaoru had 'called in a favour', he had climbed to a tall sand dune not far from town, and the birdsong echoed from his mouth to miles around, across the sand sea. First, the magpie's croak, to initiate the message. Next, the mountain rook, to identify himself; and the song of the desert wren to flag his location. Simply, and finally, the distinctive cry of the cockerel that ruled the dawn. A clear message, a clear request for help, and he had come.

In order to be assigned a call sign, all candidates simply had to break into that week's selected building and leave a calling card. That calling card would then be taken by a local member, who would hide a wooden magpie in some unobtainable spot. If the contestant could steal it away, without any sign of anything ever happening, they were given the mark, elevating them above petty thieves, and they would be given a signature call of their own; usually based on their home town.

Thieves were usually clever, but no-one claimed they were creative.

This initiation rite was not as easy as it sounded. In fact, it was almost impossible. In order to find the listed building and even to declare your interest required some prior knowledge of the Code of the Magpie, and to even notice, let alone translate it took some talent. The magpie itself was no larger then a gold piece. Hikaru and Kaoru had almost been disqualified, as they took it together and team work was frowned upon; but the very man who was with them now had decided differently. He himself had placed the magpie for them, at the top of a Church steeple, wedged in a minute gap between a gargoyle's head and the alcove it was in. It was impossible to see the magpie unless you were directly above it, there wasn't room to fit your hand in after it, and the gargoyle was exposed to the elements and to plain view. He had been sure they wouldn't get it. Unfortunately, once they had located it, they scaled the steeple on the inside, cut a tiny hole out into the back of the alcove, and retrieved it, replacing the cut off. So high that nobody would notice, and with no damage to the gargoyle or stonework, and all undetected, unaided, without ropes. They were given their marks, and now, he was here.

He didn't come for just anyone. He was legendary not just by thieves but also within the citizens of the country. He'd grown accustomed to letting himself go slightly, leaving some minor traces, to give the papers something to write about. They'd named the elusive master thief unimaginatively after the place his first known crime had been. They called him the Bento Bandit.

His name, however, was Daiki; and this was how Kaoru addressed him.

"Hey, Daiki! Thanks for coming out."

He shrugged. "I was in the area. You have a job for us?"

"Something like that." Kaoru answered, sheepishly, and glanced at the small entourage behind Daiki. "You taken up team work now?"

Daiki scowled. "Not really…" He answered, vaguely. "Besides, you always work with _him_! Oiy, Hikaru, stop skulking around in the background and come greet us, dammit! I didn't come all this way to save your sorry backsides to be ignored!"

Hikaru took a grudging step forward, but raised an eyebrow. "Skulking around in the background is something you know all about, isn't it?"

"She was my sister, dammit, I wasn't leaving you alone with her!"

"Awww, the great thief has a soft spot."

"I do not!"

"It can't be helped if your sister happened to be hot. I just wanted a bit of fun."

"Well, you shouldn't!"

"Ahhh," a second of the guys piped up, rather wistfully. "Don't take it too hard. He beat me within an inch of my life when I asked her out."

"Akira, shut your stupid fat mouth!"

Kaoru was beginning to wonder if this had been a good idea. He tugged Hikaru out of the way and spoke loudly over the bickering.

"Well, you'll be glad to know that I'm doing this job. You know the routine."

"I don't." Another of the group said, rather vaguely. "Unless you mean that dance routine that's all the rage in Aera?"

Kaoru looked at him.

"No." He agreed. "I didn't suppose so."

"…Daiki." Kaoru said, eventually. "Just who are these guys?"

Daiki shrugged again. "When the Hitachiins need help, it's a big job. They're the add-ons."

Hikaru watched as the vague sounding one explained to a very tall, pale and uninterested looking man how the sand had once been rocks.

"He fel

"And if we don't want to split the money with these… add-ons?" He asked, twitching slightly.

"Hey, we're essential!" Akira protested. He didn't look terribly impressive, his sandy-brown coloured head only just reaching Hikaru's chest. "He's rubbish without us!"

"Well…" Kaoru glanced round. "I tell you what, we'll consider. Explain."

"You ought to tell us what the job is, first." Daiki folded his arms, but sighed and launched into an explanation. "Akira's has this amazing ability to wriggle in and out of just about anything, probably because there's not much of him to get through-"

"Hey!" Akira protested loudly.

"Plus he gets surprisingly vicious at nighttimes. His call sign's a robin because he's shockingly violent, considering." Daiki continued. "The pale one is Jake." Here, he gestured at the lost looking tall man, who had hair as long, black and straight as the fangs of a black widow spider, who had the appearance of a foreigner. "He doesn't talk much, but he's still a magpie; they call him the Blackbird. What he can't break or fix isn't worth breaking. Or fixing. Then over there there's Takei, the Cockatoo; and the kid is Yamasaki. " Here a wild-haired youth nodded.

"And what are those two here for?"

"I don't know." Daiki answered, simply. "They just sort of followed us."

"…They're all idiots!" Hikaru whispered venomously.

"Um, I don't think their services will be required." Kaoru translated.

"What do you know, you depraved smartarse?!" Daiki demanded. "_I _don't even know who we 'require' yet, since you haven't told me what we're supposed to be doing here! Now remove your head from your backside and talk!"

"Well, you know the manor house on the hill…"

"The richest one in the whole desert?"

"Yes; well-"

"The one that's owned by a total idiot?"

"That's the one. Anyway-"

"So stupid that the Commandant made him have the best security installed?"

"Exactly. So-"

"There's meant to be sixteen traps per metre in there." Takei commented absently.

"Not quite that much, but-"

"That's an average, of course." Takei added.

"I've heard he has his own power generator in there." Akira smiled.

"He does, it's in the basement. But-"

"I'd love to have a go at a place like that." Daiki interrupted. "I will, one day…"

"How does tomorrow suit you?" Hikaru asked wearily.

Daiki blinked at him. "…Are you crazy?! You might get in but you wouldn't get out, and I have things to do before risking a prison retirement! Sixteen traps per metre! Think, dammit!"

"It's not sixteen traps per metre!" Kaoru protested. "They're increasing the security! It could be up to twenty by now!"

Daiki cursed violently. "You two are insane." He said, but then grinned. "Then again, I could never resist a challenge…"

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

When Haruhi exited her house that morning, she was surprised to see a red mop of hair just showing over the walls that marked the boundaries of her land. It could hardly be called a garden, stones and sand and the occasional scrubby bits of plant, but she covered the few metres to the outer boundaries anyway; and stood over him.

"Kaoru." She called, and he didn't answer. She frowned because she was going to be late to work, and was sorely tempted to leave him lying there like a vagrant, but the frown broke into a smile. He looked very peaceful, sleeping there in the sun. For a moment, she contemplated his calm form.

Then she kicked him.

Hikaru, for it was him of course, did not really appreciate this method of awakening. He and Kaoru had been up ridiculously early to go and meet Daiki, and there hadn't been much point in going home if he wanted to meet Haruhi before she went to work. It would seem he had dropped off, right there on the ground. This was not a preferable place to sleep, and stiff as he was, Haruhi scuffed boots impacting in his hip was not appreciated.

"Ouch! I see you're as gentle as ever…" He grumbled.

Haruhi raised her eyebrows. "What kind of reception did you expect? I haven't any more work for you, and you're making me late to mine."

"I only came to say good morning." He protested, clambering to his feet. "Can I walk you to work?"

She made no specific reply, but merely started on her way. He took that as permission and kept pace with her.

"Why don't you get a real job?" She rebuked, lightly. "You can't keep doing odd bits your whole life."

"Ahh, Haruhi, unemployment is freedom. I can go wherever I want and do whatever I want…" He caught a sharp look, etched with light disapproval. "Within reason." He added hastily, and she gave a brief laugh. It wasn't much more then a 'Ha', but he took it as a good sign. "Look, I'll prove it to you. I'll come meet you after work."

The eyebrows were raised again. "Why?"

"…Truth is, I'm awfully lonely."

"If only you had some work mates, then."

"Haruhi…"

She graced him with a rare smile, holding her hands up in defeat. "Okay, sure. I'll see you later."

Her acceptance was a sure sign of something more, had Hikaru realised it. He however, only walked a little further on with her, until they reached the pathway up to the manor, where she- and Kaoru- would be working that day. She would endeavour to improve the security, he would seek to spot ways to bypass it, and Hikaru would- hopefully- be providing a decent alibi a long way from the scene, so if anyone happened to find Kaoru they'd be safe. Better yet, if he could get an alibi near by, they might just have an excuse to fall back on in the case of capture. Just maybe.

He wondered if the owner needed any gardening done. With that thought, he followed Haruhi along the path towards the front door.

"What are you doing?" She asked, tone laced with suspicion. He gave her his best grin.

"Getting a job."

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

A/N: Dun dun duuuuuuuun! Well, will the twins succeed in robbing the manor once again? Will Tamaki reclaim his pencil? Will Hikaru get the job? Who knows…


	2. Rook

A/N: Thus, we arrive at Chapter Two. Whatever will happen? Heh heh heh… By the way, the characters of Daiki etc etc are all from my sister's fic; please go check it out to appreciate all the 'inside jokes' herein! There. Plugging done, and now we can continue uninterrupted as Tamaki considers Hikaru's request for a job; and our two enforcers prepare for the return of the thieves.

Chapter Two: The Rook

"Absolutely not. It's madness."

"But, Kyouya, Haruhi said he did wonders with her well…"

"Tamaki, when we're _trying _to protectyou from thieves and rouges hiring the prime suspect is not a good idea!"

"Oh, come on now, I've managed to do so much with irrigation systems and so forth, but the place does need _someone _to maintain it, who understands plants- there are precious few in this desert! Where is the beauty of nature for which I so ardently mourn?!"

"It's a true testament to your idiocy, Tamaki, that you not only think such things but open your mouth to inflict them on the rest of us. Hiring Kaoru Hitachiin- or anyone else- at this point in time will only compromise and render utterly useless everything we're trying to achieve here!"

Haruhi ignored the argument between her boss and the only person who would reduce him to such school-ground mannerisms. She could only assume that was a sign of their familiarity. Instead, she turned and looked out of the window. They were in a room next to the front door, and it looked out at the front path. It really was amazing, what he had done here. On the outskirts of the town like this, his land should have been swallowed by sand and baked hard to stone; but instead it was a sea of green. He had come a few years ago, and the elders still talked of how they had dug the ground. He had been convinced that there was water somewhere down there, and his faith had been contagious. He had dug happily along side his workers- and Kyouya too, some of them would have it- and one day, the earth had turned softer, and then it had gone from yellow to a brown, and then one day it was damp, and then, quite suddenly, water had spurted up and out. Apparently, the whole town- the few stragglers that had scraped a living there- had come and celebrated. At this point, they'd built irrigation channels and dug further wells, and they managed to improve the soil enough to farm from. Gradually, more and more people- like Haruhi- were getting wells of their own, and perhaps soon, everyone could have a garden like Tamaki's, where the grass stood green, and a dozen kind of flowers and weeds sprung from the Earth. The whole place was alive, and standing amidst it all was Kaoru- as far as she knew. To her surprise, he was crouching towards the ground, cooing softly at a bird that had landed there on the grass. She watched as it looked at him thoughtfully, and then hopped towards him. Smiling, he reached out and stroked it gently; and it bore it for a second. Haruhi watched in surprise, she'd never seen Kaoru connect with anyone like that, or indeed for a wild creature to be so trusting. But, as if her thoughts had jinxed it, the bird took fright and flew away. Kaoru scowled at it, and he had such a classic look on his face that she couldn't help but chuckle at it. The noise must have carried through the open window, because he turned, and annoyance faded to his cocky grin, and he shrugged.

The other occupants had heard her slight laugh to, and she felt rather then saw Kyouya's accusing glare on the back of her neck. She turned back around.

"Is something amusing you, Haruhi?"

"No…"

"Well," Kyouya sank, resigned, into a chair. "See if you can talk some sense into this idiot…"

"I actually think it's a good idea." Haruhi replied. "It means, at least, that we can keep an eye on him. As long as he stays outside, it should be fine, right?"

"Haruhi!" Tamaki cried in delight. "Good man, good man!" He stood up before Kyouya could intervene, and within a second Haruhi was watching him talking to, and shaking hands with Kaoru out in the front garden.

Hikaru was sure that when Tamaki agreed to take him on, it had been under Haruhi's influence. So he glanced her way, and winked a little.

Kyouya caught the look between the two friends and scowled. It would not do to have your second-in-command developing too close a relationship with the prime suspect. There was something not right about Kaoru Hitachiin, and Kyouya was determined to discover his secret.

But first, there was the matter of preparing the house for the thief's next assault.

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

Kaoru, the real one, watched Hikaru shaking hands with their next victim, and smirked. They'd met Tamaki around town, observed him often- always individually- and he liked the guy. He was decent and kind and enthusiastic. He was also very wealthy, and that was what Kaoru liked best about him. They could rob him blind, be rich, leave this town and he _still _wouldn't be left destitute. A victimless crime.

For all intents and purposes, anyway.

The other thing that made this job sweet was the layout of the grounds. Bushes and trees and tall grasses everywhere, designed to bring joy to a barren town. On the other hand, it gave them a number of perfect vantage points. Kyouya knew there was no tackling this, so he was concentrating on the work inside. But between their concealed surveillance and Hikaru working in the place, they should be able to get a good idea of what they were up against.

Kaoru shifted himself slightly from where he lay in some long yellow weeds, and for a second, caught their scent that proved to be the key to let out something that had been tightly locked away.

_"Brother?!"_

_"Ssh, I'm right here!"_

_"Brother, I found-"_

_"Get down!"_

_Silence, and laughter passing._

_"…Are they gone?"_

_"I think so."_

_A grin. "They didn't find us."_

_An identical smile. "Of course not. Nobody's going to find us!"_

_And a new voice. "I'm terribly sorry, I'm afraid I have. Oh, don't look so frightened. I won't give you away." He lowered his voice. "Actually, I was wondering if I could join you."_

_"You?" Suspicious now._

_"Oh, yes." He said, seriously. "Even old men have to hide sometimes." And he lay down with them, and they spent a happy afternoon watching the world go by, and the clouds float up and over the tops of the distant mountains that just broke the horizon._

Kaoru shut his eyes tight over the images that had snuck into them. When he opened them, he noticed Daiki giving him a strange look from behind one of the bushes. He had eventually decided only he and Akira would stick around- which was a good thing, as it meant that they wouldn't have to split the wealth so much.

Kaoru forced his mind back to the job.

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

Hikaru laid down the spade he'd found as Haruhi came and began to walk down the path. He came and hurried over to her.

"Why are you in such a rush?" He demanded. Whatever happened, he couldn't let her see Kaoru and the others sneaking away from the mansion now that the work was done for the day. "I said I'd meet you, didn't I?"

"You have, haven't you?" She pointed out, with a smirk. Then she added, "Besides, that was to teach me the pleasures of unemployment, and you seem to have got yourself a job."

"It's only temporary, I assure you."

"So why take it?"

"I have my reasons."

Haruhi raised an eyebrow sceptically, as having reasons would have required forethought. "Such as?"

"You."

She was rather taken aback at this, and blinked, but Kaoru just smirked and snickered to himself. "Come on." He said. "Let's go do stuff!"

"Let's go do stuff?" She repeated. No further mockery was needed.

"Some of us aren't as educated as you." He sniffed, and set off down the path. She fell into step next to him, and they headed back towards town, not realising that they were being watched; by Kaoru within the bushes and Kyouya from the house.

Things were taking an interesting turn.

But, in that second, as the ground turned from grass to the dry dirt of the desert, the two were oblivious. Some moments were just perfect, and needed nothing more then the circumstance and the person you spent it with; didn't need to be anything more then they were. For a while, they continued arguing half-heartedly with each other, but the mutterings around them and the pointed looks continued until even they couldn't fail to notice.

Haruhi glanced upwards awkwardly, and saw the hurt in Kaoru's eyes. She couldn't imagine what it would be like to be so distrusted by your neighbours. She looked around fiercely instead, hoping her good reputation would counteract the rumours about him. But they just muttered more.

"Come on." Hikaru muttered to her. "Let's go." He grabbed her hand and pulled her along to make her go faster, and of course the mutterings increased. She pulled angrily away.

"Kaoru!" She hissed, as quietly as she could. "Do you normally hold hands with men?!"

"Oh, right, sorry." He shrugged. "I just can't take you as a man, Haruhi, however much you may look like one."

"Oh, thanks for the confidence boost."

"Nah, you do a good job of fooling other people." He answered, easily. "But not me. It's my ambition to see you in a dress someday."

She wasn't sure what to say to that, but she was saved from replying by Hikaru opening the door to the town's seedy tavern. She wrinkled her nose in slight distaste as the smell of cheap booze assaulted her, and looked at him questioningly.

"Here?"

Hikaru jabbed a thumb into the relative darkness. "No suspicious looks in here."

"…Alright." She suddenly smiled. "This was where I first met you, wasn't it?"

He frowned a little, trying to remember. "Yeah, I guess it was." He agreed, standing aside to let her in. "I stole your drink."

"So it _was _you." She said, satisfied. Hikaru made no reply, at first thinking she'd never asked him before and then that she must have interrogated Kaoru. In truth, it had been Kaoru that had met her at the bar that day. He had been hiding behind it, preparing to dart down to the cellar to pinch some food. The glass before Haruhi, because she, like him, was not a fan of alcohol, had been too good to resist. But who would have thought she'd remember an inconsequential thing like that? They seated themselves at a table in a back corner, but for now did not order a drink. Hikaru was glad she did not want to yet- he had no money on him and he'd need to pick-pocket her a little first.

"Doesn't it bother you?" She asked, suddenly, eyes flashing in annoyance, as the people on the next table got up and moved further away after sizing Hikaru up. "The whole town suspects you."

Hikaru noted the irritation on her face with some surprise and, inexplicably, found it gratifying. The suspicion itself did not bother him, some bizarre code of honour dictated that the reaction was deserved, but he did regret passing that on to her, who had been so respected, and he allowed it to show on his face- she would interpret it as his own disillusionment, with any luck. "I can't blame them." He shrugged the half-truth out. "It's this hair colour… When the only clue is red hair…"

"I suppose." Haruhi answered, dully. "I must confess, I've never met anyone else with red hair."

As far as she knew, anyway.

"I mean," She continued. "Tamaki's the only blond in town, but everyone knows that's because his mother was from the west somewhere. He was born and bred here. Whereas, with you…"

"With me?" He suddenly sounded guarded.

"Well, you're a bit of a mystery." She shrugged to hide her curiosity.

"Red hair isn't that uncommon where I'm from." He suddenly smiled indulgently. "Way up North, in the mountains… You wouldn't believe it. Hills and hills of green, lakes and water everywhere. And snow. Snow for the whole winter long." He suddenly looked almost sullen. "I'll bet you've never even seen snow, have you?"

"No." She admitted, then, as if to make up for the fact, added- "But I know what it is. It's like powdery ice."

Hikaru snorted, and a certain bitterness came over his features. "It's cold. Cold like you don't even know- it's not a chill in the air, it's tangible, inescapable. It lies over everything and suffocates the earth."

Haruhi wasn't quite sure what to say to that, and seeing how it had made him uncomfortable, endeavoured to change the subject. "You put that very eloquently."

"I was taught by an educated man." He dropped her gaze, looked away, but spoke to her almost reluctantly. "Haruhi… When snow melts, what does it become?"

"What?" He didn't reply, just met her eyes again, as if it was very important. Slightly unnerved, she answered. "Water, I guess."

He chuckled slightly. "I knew you'd say that."

_"Hikaru, Kaoru, whatever's the matter? You look so gloomy!"_

_Dark glances at the window._

_"The snow? Don't you like it?"_

_"No." They answered, resolutely. When it snowed, the cold would seep into their bones and stay for months. They'd be wet and tired, there would be no food to be had, and no foliage to hide in. They did not like the snow._

_A smile. "I see. Then let me ask you this- when snow melts, what does it become?"_

_Blank faces._

_"The snow melts into water, and the water sinks into the earth, and breathes life back into it. When snow melts, it becomes spring; it becomes life."_

Hikaru continued to laugh, bitterly, coldly; and Haruhi was unnerved further. "Stop that." She said, flatly. "You're creeping me out. What else am I supposed to say?"

"Nothing. Nothing at all."

Silence.

"But…" Hikaru spoke slowly. "I don't think I'd mind snow so much if you were there. I bet you'd love it."

"I'd like to see it, one day."

"One day, perhaps."

But Hikaru only said it to humour her. She was an enforcer, the second in command, deeply rooted into this community. And he was a thief, a liar, and soon to move on, before they were discovered.

It would never happen.

After this last job, he'd probably never see her again.

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

Kaoru was home well before his brother, and having snuck back to the house unnoticed, he skulked about- away from the windows- waiting. There was never much to do when he was alone; they'd stolen a deck of cards in the past, but not much else. Leisure wasn't worth the risk.

But then, they were certainly good enough… He rubbed his magpie tattoo thoughtfully. Maybe he'd pilfer some of the books when they raided Tamaki's house again. They were a rare commodity in this part of the world, because few could read- but for those who could, they were valued. An escape and a novelty. Kaoru had been educated by a great man, who had wanted something better than this for them. But it had been impossible.

He sighed, and tried not to let his mind stray down that route. It would only bring needless conflict.

At length, Hikaru returned home. He seemed distant, but cheerful, smiling to himself.

"Hey." Kaoru said, and he grinned a greeting around whatever it was he was eating. He tossed something to Kaoru, which turned out to be a hot pastry just like his own, and then sat down next to him. Kaoru ate, but watched his brother warily.

"What?" Hikaru asked, catching the reproachful look at last. "You're pouting."

"I'm not!" Kaoru denied, irritated. "I was just thinking."

"What about?"

"That you're getting awfully close to Haruhi…"

"Of course I am." He gave a jaunty wink, and leant closer. "The only better person to befriend would be the Commandant himself, and in case you haven't noticed, he doesn't like us too much and has the disposition of a cactus. To be friends with the second in command, though… Could be beneficial." He smirked all the wider. "For example, if she accidentally lets slip that the scratches on her arms were from carrying barbed wire…"

Kaoru's eyes widened. "Yeah, we saw them putting it up over the back door. I can't believe she was that careless…"

"Nor me." Hikaru agreed gleefully. "But I'm sure there will be more where that came from. And, as the new grounds man, I'll be able to see if they leave anything nasty for us in the gardens. Did you find anything?"

"Not really." Kaoru shrugged. "It's not too easy to see. We know Kyouya wanted to hide some pit falls in the floor, but Tamaki's being stubborn- doesn't want them digging inside his house, for some reason. There's some enforcers being stationed around the place, too, but they're just thugs. Skulls as thick as two short planks and not much inside them. You know the sort. We'll try again tomorrow."

And so the next day, and the days following it, passed in much the same way. Hikaru worked the grounds at the manor as Kaoru and the others skulked around it, always carefully concealed, and together they all observed. Kaoru strategised and assessed their options, and Hikaru lead Haruhi to trust him. Then, perhaps, she might let more slip then she ought; and maybe then suspicious activity, if noticed, would go unchecked for longer. Her trusting him would be a definite advantage.

So what if he enjoyed her company, too? So what if talking to someone other then Kaoru was refreshing, or if he found he was enjoying going to work with her each day? So what if the hot desert sun seemed more bearable in the shade of Tamaki's trees, or in her company?

None of those things were important. But they were nice.

Haruhi was enjoying herself too. She had always been happy, but somehow, any monotony was now gone from her life, any boredom vanished; she found his company a refreshing change from people who, like her, were very serious. She found he seemed to have an instinctual ability to make her laugh; and though she sometimes thought about how different he was to how he used to be, she banished the thoughts away. He was a pain, a pest, and a nuisance- but she was finding it hard to mind. Today, they were standing in her small plot of land behind her house as she began to draw water from the well he'd dug for her. It was very deep, and it was no easy job.

"Sometimes," She said to him. "I think you just come here to steal my water so you don't have to go to the standpipe."

"Hey, I dug this thing. That makes it _mine_."

"I paid for it, it's on _my _land, and _I _earnt it- it's _mine_." She barely glanced at him during this entire exchange, turning the handle to bring the water up. However, if she had, he was sure that unwilling and rare amusement would have been present in her eyes.

"Alright…" He said, spreading his arms wide. "I tell you what. We'll share."

"Kaoru, why not just dig your own well?" She questioned, exasperated, and for a second he couldn't even answer. It still shocked him when she called him Kaoru, and he longed to tell her his real name, longed to hear her say it. A name was very important.

_"Now, then. What are your names?"_

_"Names?"_

_"Well, what do people call you?"_

_"The twins."_

_"…What do you call each other, then?"_

_"Brother."_

_He observed them for a long time, and it wasn't until later that they understood the pity and sadness in his eyes. But then he smiled._

_"This won't do, will it? Why not pick names? You need to have one each, that belongs to nobody else."_

That was it. If only to stop the memories from coming unbidden, he would tell her. Tell her Kaoru was an abbreviation or something, because he couldn't stand to be called that anymore. He just wanted her to know, and to call him, by his name; to know who he was.

"Haruhi…"

"Yes?" She answered, busying herself with pulling the full bucket carefully over the rim. He found himself wondering, again, how anyone believed her to be a man. True, she wasn't overly feminine in feature or behaviour, but honestly, did _nobody _else see her worth and just _know_?

He took a step closer. "Will you… do something for me?"

Something in his tone commanded her full attention, and she turned towards him. "What?"

"Just…" There was a desperation, a stubbornness, taking him over, and he moved closer, taking hold of her shoulders. "Just… call me by my name."

She frowned at him in confusion. "Kaoru, stop messing around." But she was uncertain, and the inexplicable hurt in his eyes confirmed his seriousness. He sighed bitterly, and, to her surprise, came all the closer and rested his head on her shoulder. The bucket spilt, and she was for a moment going to push him off, but seemed unable to do so; so let him hold her a moment longer, though he said nothing.

"Kaoru… I hate to-"

"Haruhi. Please, call me-"

She pushed him off, suddenly seeming angry.

"Man!" She snapped at him, too irritated to even keep her voice down. "I'm a man, remember? Get off!"

Silence. But he backed off, and she went to pick up the bucket, both of them awkward, uncomfortable. The silence reigned, until Hikaru finally spoke, still determined to have her know his real name by the end of the day.

"Haruhi?"

"Yes?" She answered, hastily, which made it seem as though she was as anxious for things to be normal between them as he was.

"I meant it. See, my n-"

He was cut off abruptly by the a shriek of birds. To Haruhi, who, startled at the sudden breakage of the quiet, it just sounded like a cacophonic chorus; but Hikaru's trained ears picked out first the magpie, and then the strangled cry of the opportunistic cuckoo.

He also knew that the sounds did not come from a bird.

"I wonder what happened?" Haruhi mused, scanning the sky for the injured creatures. "It sounds like one of those monsters caught up with the birds."

"Maybe." Hikaru answered, absently. The cuckoo? It couldn't be. Not now, of all times. Madness forgotten for now, he forced a smile and said: "Right, I'll leave you to it, Haruhi. See you."

"What? Kaoru, what is the matter with you today?"

"Nothing! Bye!"

He ran from her and back to his brother, who was waiting for him back at their hideout.

"Did you hear-?" Hikaru began, but stopped short when he saw that today Kaoru was joined by Daiki, and the short one, Akira.

"Yeah, we heard." Akira answered, unnecessarily. "This place has been cuckoo-ed."

"Tomorrow at sunset, then. But what kind of thing could _anyone _be planning here?" Kaoru mused. "I mean, Tamaki's rich, but it's not worth-"

"Never mind all that." Daiki said, impatiently. "I'm not hanging around to find out. So you," He gestured at Hikaru. "Pull up a chair and let's sort this out. We're going in tonight."

Hikaru did as he was bidden, for once not entering into banter with the other. The town had been cuckoo-ed, and this was serious stuff. The cuckoo, the bird of opportunity, that pushed other eggs out of a nest to make room for it's own. In the Magpie Code, it was a warning- someone was planning a big job in this place, and anyone who was thief enough to understand the code was cautioned to stay out of the way. It meant it was a risky scheme; a big risk, but a big reward, if they escaped free or alive. The same might not be said for the people they met on the way; and this time, Daiki was happy not to go in and grab a share for himself. He was convinced that there was nothing worth stealing in this dust-ball town, and he was only doing the manor job as a favour to the twins in admiration of their cunning little plan (They had the best job-jail ratio in living memory), as well as a reasonable cut of whatever they stole. Then there was the challenge of the ever-increasing security in that place. Some more surveillance might have been advantageous, but Daiki had never been patient; and they were adding more tricks and traps daily- most of which had been revealed only by Tamaki forgetting and falling into them. They had to do this now. The cuckoo meant that, tomorrow- starting at sunset- something big would be going down here, and Daiki wanted to be well out of the way. He figured he'd travel inland, away from these desert outskirts, and towards the mountains. But first, the job needed to be done, and on such short notice they'd need all the help they could get. Both the twins would be coming.

As such, plans were laid, and preparations rushed, in the back alley that served as the hang out of thieves; and Hikaru did not spare a second to think about the strange feelings that had occurred earlier, that had been building since he had met her, when he stood so close to Haruhi in her garden.

And she, though she tried not to, found the moment filled her thoughts all through that night. Just what was it that Kaoru had been so close to telling her, and just what was it about him that seemed to keep him so firmly in her head?

+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

"This is impossible." You could practically hear Kyouya's teeth grinding together. "I thought for sure we'd get them."

"Evidently our red-head is quite clever." Haruhi agreed. It may have been the early hours of the morning, but she had been completely alert from the moment Kyouya had sent a runner to her door to tell her the mansion had been practically emptied overnight. "I mean, whoever heard of a thief stealing paperback novels?"

Though she did not know it, that had been the cause of a lot of discourse amongst the bulgur-ing party; but Kaoru had won in the end, despite being accused of being a 'depraved idiot'.

"I couldn't care less about the books." Kyouya replied. "I more care about the valuables- the paintings and the gold, and the jewellery-"

"And the pencil!" Tamaki chipped in, distressed.

"No, not the pencil!" Kyouya was at the end of his temper. "Tamaki, nobody cares about the pencil, so please let us concentrate on more important things!"

"I just can't believe he slept through it." Haruhi admitted. "The amount of traps we set up designed to trigger alarms… I just don't understand it. And how did one person get away with all that stuff? There must have been a group of them."

"That's good." Kyouya nodded briskly. This was a matter of pride now. He knew they were good, very good, to have avoided his traps; and now he was more determined then ever to prove that he was better. "It's far more likely that someone will have woken up and seen them going. Haruhi, start asking questions of the neighbours; and we'll meet back here at sunset."

"Commandant…" She said, deciding it was best not to be informal given what she was trying to say. "With all respect, it's not even sun _rise _yet; and we don't want to cause panic by waking people up. Besides, this house is pretty isolated from the rest- it's unlikely that anyone will have concrete information. May I suggest that we stay here a while longer and gather all the clues we can first?"

Kyouya grudgingly nodded his consent.

"But before that, breakfast!" Tamaki declared. "I think we still have food left!"

He was right, in a way, but also wrong. They had stolen the food after all, but had left behind the most hard to come by out of them all- the cakes and the confectionary. They looked at it in disbelief.

"Who robs a house of all it's valuables and then wastes time and effort, slows themselves down and risks being caught over the contents of a pantry?" Haruhi asked, disbelievingly.

"Maybe they were hungry?" Tamaki suggested. "Ah, but we still have the cake!"

"Cake. Wonderful. They've robbed you of all your worldly possessions, but we still have _cake_." Kyouya sighed and turned away.

Haruhi, however, was still bewildered- and almost amused. "Why leave the cake…?"

"Maybe it was too sweet." Tamaki suggested. He stepped forward a little. "So… Do you want lemon or ginger, Haruhi?"

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

Success was a sweet taste, and Hikaru savoured it on his way to work that morning. Probably not as sweet as the cake Akira had refused to let them take, but Hikaru was willing to let that pass. Their accomplices had skipped town already, Kaoru was back at the house sorting things out to travel, and he was going to work so as not to arouse suspicion while they were preparing to skip town. They were rich now, they could go anywhere, do anything. He couldn't wait. He wanted to go somewhere with an abundance of greenery and water again.

He couldn't wait to be shot of this place.

He'd miss Haruhi, of course- he'd never been able to really make a friend before. Even if it had been just for the sake of the job.

And now the job was over, she didn't really matter too much anymore.

He reached the house just as Haruhi was emerging from it and feigned surprise at the bustle and activity around. Most of the enforcers had turned up to 'help', and though ninety percent of them had no clue and were merely trying to _look _busy, Haruhi and Kyouya genuinely were. The former gave him a strained smile as he came closer, and the latter watched from a distance, face unreadable.

"What's happening?" Hikaru asked, curiously, when he and Haruhi were within earshot of each other.

"This place was robbed last night." She explained, simply. "I'm going down into town to see if anyone knows anything."

"Robbed?" Hikaru widened his eyes. "Geez, am I going to be able to work or is everyone one of these enforcers going to arrest me again?!"

"Maybe you're right…" She conceded. "I'd take the day off, if I were you."

"Sounds good." He agreed. "In that case, want to walk with me into town?"

"Sure." She smiled.

And Kyouya frowned, watching his second in command walking away, once again, with the one he still considered the prime suspect. What a funny relationship those two had. His suspicions were no less allied by the afternoon, when Haruhi returned, and her reports from around the town echoed his own- very few people had seen anything, but those who had reported, again, the red haired man.

Funny thing was, the two law enforcers had gone in opposite directions.

"It's certainly strange." Haruhi admitted, her eyes following Kyouya as he paced back and forth across the room. "I suspect, though, that it's a psychological thing- everyone fears the red haired man, and it's natural that anyone remembering suspicious activity would remember red hair. I've heard of it several times, in cases where eye witnesses have said one thing and it's turned out to be entirely another. It's a form of crowd hysteria, and I suppose-"

"Be that as it may," Kyouya interrupted impatiently, "It's all we have to go on so we can't dismiss it just yet." He looked her straight in the eye and informed her of his decision. "There's nothing else for it. I'm bringing in Kaoru Hitachiin."

"What?" Haruhi protested, alarmed. "But it can't be him, we know, he's had an alibi every time!"

"Did he have one last night?"

Haruhi couldn't answer that, but something inside her would not let her drop the issue. "He's a trust-worthy man, sir, I can vouch for that- we would only be wasting time bringing him in when he's innocent, and in the meantime the real criminals are getting even further away!"

"I assure you, Haruhi, that if he is innocent he will be dealt with quickly enough." Kyouya answered, firmly. "Go home and get some rest- there's not much else we can do today. Tomorrow, when he comes to work, we'll get him. Alright?"

No, it wasn't. And though she answered in the affirmative, she had no intention of letting him. It didn't matter that he was her superior, to bring Kaoru in would be to bring in an innocent- and, knowing how desperate Kyouya was to catch the criminal, she had no doubt he'd find him guilty by any means possible. That would be a serious injustice, and she could not let it happen. So she was resolved. She would find his house, find him, and send him away.

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

A/N: Shock, horror, suspense! Well no, not really. But will Haruhi go against Kyouya? Will the twins be able to hide from her if she does? Just what will happen tomorrow at sunset? Who knows…?


	3. Lark

A/N: And here we are at the final part. This is chapter three, obviously, in which our story reaches it's conclusion. And this part is much longer than the others, which I didn't realise. (Sorry!) Oh well, please enjoy the epic conclusion and thanks for coming this far!

Chapter Three: The Lark

Nobody ever visited them, because nobody knew they were there. After all, this house didn't even _technically _belong to them, and was so tottery that nobody would live there unless obscurity suited them and danger didn't bother them. And even if anybody _had _known they were there, who would have wanted to come and see them?

Hikaru forgot that he had befriended someone. Someone with the brains to have taken into account which direction he came and went from, and to see the dust disturbed outside the door, and someone who cared enough to come and chase him down when he was in trouble, to warn them. Hikaru had forgotten all these things, and Kaoru had never thought of them; so as they stood together, busying themselves with bundling up more of the stolen goods ready to leave.

They were totally unprepared for Haruhi to burst into the room.

And she was totally unprepared for the sight before her.

_Two…?_

"Haruhi!" Hikaru said, anxiously, too surprised and horrified to say anything else.

"Twins…?" She muttered, absently, as with all the presence of mind that made her so good at her job, things began to snap together. The mood swings. The constantly unquestionable alibis. The job at the manor. Even befriending her. And that slip, in the garden, when he'd begged her to use her name. "Oh, no. Oh, no, you…"

"Haruhi," he said, again. "I… I know this seems bad, but just-"

"Bad doesn't cut it." She said, anger in her voice.

Kaoru watched the exchange silently. He'd found Haruhi perfectly amiable in the short amount of time he'd spent with her, but even so, if he had his way, they'd knock her out now and run with whatever they could carry. But Hikaru didn't do it. Why didn't Hikaru do it?

"I was just your alibi, wasn't I?" She was saying, harshly. "Befriend me, because you knew, you _knew _ I would come here and warn you!"

"Haruhi, no! Well, yes, to begin with, but-"

"You lied."

"Oh, don't act like you're so pure!" Hikaru's temper decided to assert itself. "Don't preach to me about lying when you're living under forged papers!"

"I use it for the good of this town, not for theft! Don't you dare try to say I'm as bad as you! You are a total low life, Kaoru!"

"Stop saying that!" He screamed at her. "My name is _Hikaru_!"

"Are you sure? Ten minutes ago you didn't exist." She replied, coolly.

Kaoru decided it was time to step in. "Haruhi, you don't understand… we had no choice…"

"No choice?" She snorted. "We'll see, shall we, what Kyouya thinks."

"You wouldn't." Hikaru scoffed. "Problem is, you've actually fallen for me."

The hurt in her eyes hardened and became something much worse. In an instant the cuffs that all the enforcers carried with them were around Kaoru's wrist, another on his own. But she looked only at him. Straight into his disbelieving eyes.

"You're under arrest." She said, quietly.

She was spared the punishment of dragging them both back to the station by Kyouya entering. Naturally suspicious of the friendship, he had anticipated Haruhi and followed her. In a second, Hikaru was chained to his wrist instead of to hers, and he could see her no more.

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

The cell door closed. The twins did their best to look unconcerned, and Haruhi did her best not to look at them, quietly doing her part- as the arresting officer- of filling in the paper work. Kyouya, however, was more willing to talk. He had to, legally.

"You'll be pleased to know that all the objects in your…" His lips smirked slightly. "'house' are being returned to their rightful owners. As for the two of you, you'll be taken to the court houses tomorrow. I'm post-phoning your trial because, I suspect, I'll have a few more things to drag up against you apart from the manner job." He smirked all the wider. "I applaud you. You _have _played a clever trick. But scum is always washed away in the end."

Hikaru was seething, of course, but he spoke coolly. "Ah, I think you're going to have to release us. Isn't that the protocol, if the arrest isn't made by a legal officer?"

Kyouya raised an eyebrow, turned away, and Haruhi turned to the prisoner, scared, but now Hikaru had started, he could not stop. He opened the box and let the secret loose.

"In which case, I demand you get your second in command checked, because last I heard, women and fraudsters were not allowed in the enforcers."

Kyouya sighed very, very slowly, and glared at Hikaru. "As you know, I am legally _obliged _to see to your objection. But rest assured, I _will _be adding 'wasting police time' and 'impeding the course of justice' to your sentence, and then a million other little things for comprising my second's dignity." He turned to Haruhi, said nothing, and then sent gravely for the old woman that lived nearby. He calmly pointed them into a back room, with the instruction that Haruhi should take her shirt off, and shut the door behind them.

And that, Haruhi thought, was as clear a sign of an ending than any other; but she had no choice but to oblige. She dressed again, and went back outside, where the verdict was delivered.

"I see." Kyouya said, flatly, thanked the woman and sent her away, trusting her discretion. "Haruhi… Because of your services these last few years, I'll be a little lenient and won't have you in on charges of fraudulent identity and illegal occupation. However, I suggest you get out of town as quickly as possible, and start again as you ought to be, or I may just change my mind."

Haruhi was despairing inside. She wanted to argue, so desperately, and cling to her whole world that was crashing in around her. But it seemed all the fight in her had been lost. She handed in her pistol and her badge, and was gone.

"Sorry, Commandant." Hikaru said, mockingly, defiantly. He didn't regret it. She had deserved it.

She had arrested them.

"As for you two, here's the legal arrest you so wanted." Kyouya snarled at them. "I place you both under arrest, under the power of our convention! Good enough? Good. Now, I'll leave you to stew, alone in the dark, on how much I am going to make you pay for ever crossing me."

And he left too, left them locked securely in a cell inside a locked police station. He didn't want to deal with them right now. Instead, he headed out into the late afternoon sun, that was just beginning to think about setting, and found himself heading up towards Tamaki's. What a mess this whole affair was. He entered the manor around some of the local lads who were helping return the items- absently reprimanding one who had slipped a diamond-encrusted fork into a pocket- and eventually found his friend.

"Kyouya!" Tamaki crowed in delight and surprise. "I wasn't expecting you back today!"

"I thought you'd like to know we'd caught them." Kyouya said, simply.

"Actually, I judged that from all my stuff returning." Tamaki smiled. "But this calls for a celebration! I'll pore us some wine, and we'll talk!"

He would not have taken no for an answer, so Kyouya did not offer it; and before too long they were seated in a corner of the garden, greenery so hard won from the desert, and Tamaki prompted him to speak with a simple question.

"So, was it Kaoru Hitachiin?"

"Partly, but not entirely." Kyouya sighed a little, and shifted position. "It was him, and his brother."

"Brother?" Tamaki seemed bewildered, so Kyouya quickly filled him in on the sordid details. Inevitably, it came to the day's second revelation about Haruhi's secret.

"Ah, it finally came out, then." Tamaki said, regretfully, catching Kyouya's eye and smiling slightly. "Oh, come off it, Kyouya- I suspect you knew she was a woman from the instant you saw her, didn't you?"

Kyouya made no comment to this, but said instead: "And when did you realise?"

"I'd been suspicious, almost certain, for a long time; but on seeing her with Kaoru- ah, Hikaru, you say- I was convinced. What an unhappy ending this is! It is a dark tale indeed!" Agitated, he stood up to stretch, and just for a second, old scars were visible through his shirt. A constant reminder.

"It's a dark world." Kyouya shrugged. They'd known that from the day they got their discharge papers from the militia and come to this town. Kyouya had thought any endeavour to rescue it quite pointless, but when Tamaki came to him with money and a 'great idea' that just needed someone with a little sense, his natural ambition had asserted itself, and he had decided to protect and save this little town.

After all, they'd spent two years in the desert stopping monsters from coming that far in land and he could not let it all go to waste. Not that he had been in Tamaki's regiment, at first; he had joined them six months in. No-one was sure what had happened to him during the six months before, but it was almost certain that it had shaped who he was when he reached them. He had been very anti-social then, rarely speaking unless it was absolutely necessary. He hadn't seemed to have much of an interest in any of them, immediately causing him to be alienated, but he didn't respond to their teasing and the regiment weren't sure what to do. Offers of friendship, in various forms, had always been politely and pointedly ignored, even Tamaki's constant efforts; which continued unabated till they served not only to annoy Kyouya but everyone else there as well.

And then there came the day Tamaki had got those scars.

Kyouya wasn't entirely sure of what had happened that day, because at that point, he and Tamaki were in different patrols. The first he knew of it was when Tamaki was brought in on a stretcher and he recognised the horrid marks on his back. It was clear he had fallen foul of a Tentacula, a horrid beast with a tongue formed of nine lashing whips, with paralysing poison in each one. He'd assumed, having no evidence at all to suggest anything else was more likely, that this had been a result of Tamaki's own idiocy. Of course, it eventually came out it had been in some suitably noble and heroic venture, to draw it away from his unarmed team-mates and the camp, probably saving all their lives, but it hardly seemed to matter- it all came to the same end. And so, Kyouya hadn't been paying much attention, as he sat at the long table- too large to be in any of the tents- eating his lunch, as, nearby, a doctor saw to Tamaki's wounds. He was talking, laughing, joking; even when he couldn't move; and it was infuriating so that Kyouya was doing his level best to ignore it, when the beast came.

It was leisure time, and in an area designated as a 'safe spot'- monsters very rarely made it in. Yet, this one, perhaps pushed forward by a taste for Tamaki's blood, reared up and appeared quite suddenly. There would have been no time to move, even if he had been able to, and Tamaki felt quite sure this was the end as the beast opened it's mouth and the nine tentacles spat out with the horrid squelching noise; but the end did not come.

A Tentacula had one week spot- right in the central point where all of it's tentacles fused into one, the stump of the tongue. It was a one in a million shot, even at close quarters with an automatic weapon. The odds at fifty yards with a dinner knife must have been relatively miniscule. And yet, in a move that- much to his chagrin- went down in the regiment's history, Kyouya had done it; and he even had to start talking to Tamaki, as he went to ask for his knife back.

But that had been many years ago now, and many things had changed; both he and Tamaki included. Despite this, they still had the same goal- to keep the desert clean and safe; and now two more criminals were off the streets. Yet, Kyouya still felt wretched.

Possibly because he'd just been forced to fire the only employee who had actually pulled their weight. He hadn't a choice; when he had been able to pretend she had deceived him he had been able to keep her on, but now she was so revealed he simply couldn't justify it. He was pushing it not doing her for fraud.

Kyouya sighed again in discontent. Where was he to get a decent enforcer now?

"Well, I shall miss her." Tamaki sighed, turning back to his friend and kicking his heels slightly. "And you know no man is going to do the job half as well. Would it be so bad to… bend the rules ever so slightly?"

"How can I enforce the law if I'm breaking it myself?" Kyouya replied.

It was a good question.

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

The twins sat, slumped on the concrete floor of their cell, in silence. Kaoru watched his brother clench and unclench his hands into fists, and wondered if he should say something. In truth, he felt awful at the prospect of what awaited them, was despairing inside, but he sensed another reason for Hikaru's upset. At last, he decided to breach the subject.

"You didn't have to give her away." He said, peevishly.

"She arrested us! After all we did for her!" Hikaru was immediately on his feet, restless. "She deserved it!" He stretched a little and sat back down, muttering "Besides, it's not _my _fault she decided to care so much about me. She didn't even care about me- she thought I was _you_."

"She thought your name was Kaoru, but she cared about _you_. That was the original idea, wasn't it?" He sighed. "Well, she'll be okay. I guess she'll just go into the desert until she catches up with the bus and get out of here."

Hikaru made no reply, and in the cold concrete room, silence reigned again as the light around them slowly turned into another glorious sun set; and their mood sank with it. It really made you think about your life, when it seemed likely you'd never walk free again.

"What would he think of us now?" Kaoru asked suddenly, miserably. "What would Nicholas think of us…?"

"Shut up." Hikaru answered, bitterly. Of all times, he didn't want to think about that now. Not now. "I don't want to talk about it."

"But we should." Kaoru replied, flatly. "If we'd talked about him more maybe we wouldn't be in this mess."

"Of course we would have been!" Hikaru snapped back. "We didn't have a choice! We didn't have a choice, and one man can't make that much of a difference! He didn't make a difference!"

They both knew he was wrong, and they both knew he didn't mean it. They both knew Nicholas had made all the difference in the world. He alone, of all the world, had accepted them.

Life had not started well for the Hitachiin brothers. Twins were considered bad luck, evil; though no fault of their own had made them that way. The only reason they hadn't both simply been killed off was their mother's squeamishness. Even so, she had found herself all but unable to give them affection. They were just too similar, too unnatural; so she had hushed them up as much as possible, and did the bear minimum. Perhaps they would have lived their entire lives that way, shut off from the rest of the world and then thought unnatural because they only socialised with one another, had it not been for that year. They were seven. The crops were bad, the weather worse. Illness came and people went. Then lightning struck the food store, and that was the final straw. Everyone knew the number seven was unlucky, everyone knew twins were even worse; and surely, this was the punishment for keeping such little devils for so long.

They ran. They were only young, and twin urchins were not welcomed. They quickly became used to being chased away, beaten and instilling terror. They quickly became adept at travelling unseen, at stealing what they needed and could not find; and eventually stealing whatever they could. It took them a year, that journey, and all they managed to do was pass over the mountains that their home town lay below, and some distance across the villages, plains and farm lands on the other side. Barely eight years old and they'd climbed a mountain and supported themselves.

That was the circumstance when Nicholas found them, hiding in long grass from an enraged farmer who had just noticed someone had drank a full pail of milk. That was when the old man came and hid beside them. They'd been cautious, but curious too. Here was someone who wasn't them, but didn't seem to hate them either, who didn't try to chase them away. They knew they could be walking right into a trap, but they couldn't help but wonder. So they went with him. They stayed with him, and slept in a bed beneath a roof, and ate proper meals, and were given a name each that they took and used with pride. Nicholas, old though he was, gave them the education they'd missed, taught them to read and appreciate books- though Hikaru had never quite taken to it- taught them about the far off oceans and deserts, showed them the science of the blue sky, and to appreciate the beauty of the world. He showed them all he could, of animals and plants, of what the world had to offer to free men. He taught them too of kindness, to be given and taken, of right and wrong, and justice, patience, goodness; and he would ask them each time they failed what kind of person they wanted to be.

But still, they were twins, and they were bad luck.

The village was in a rough period; and it didn't matter that the hard times had been since before Nicholas had taken the twins in, or lasted long after, the villagers were sure there could be only one reason. They were twelve when the biggest men of the town came to demand their blood, where Nicholas did his best to hold the door shut, and told them to run.

They'd hoped he was following, and hid overnight nearby, but the only ones that found them were one of the many search parties. They ran, and found a use for their old skills again, and found necessity overrode all their moral lessons of acceptance when nobody accepted them. Thieves once again. They could not risk going back to the town anytime soon, and simply got further and further away. They could not bear to look back.

Seventeen. Ten years after their journey began, and they returned home. Not to the house they were born in, to him, to Nicholas. His house was boarded up, wasting away, and in the small Churchyard they found him. He had died the previous year, of old age; and with him had their final hopes of morality. They wanted to stay longer, but someone came out of the service going on in the Church and started shouting at them for bringing their evil onto holy ground; and they fled again.

That had been the decisive factor. If Nicholas died, so did his principles. Six months on, they earnt their magpie tattoos; and then there was no going back.

Yet, despite their struggles, despite their constant journeying and never before being caught, they'd eventually come to the same end. Rotting in a cell.

What would Nicholas have thought of them?

"We screwed up." Kaoru sighed, eventually, standing up to look through the barred window. "Do you reckon this will be the last sunset we see?"

Hikaru wasn't going to answer, but something stuck in his brain. Sunset.

"_This place has been cuckoo-ed."_

And the job would take place the following day. At sunset.

Today. Right now.

And Haruhi was crossing the desert.

Hikaru was on his feet in an instant. "Kaoru!"

"What?"

"The cuckoo!"

Kaoru frowned momentarily and then his expression cleared. "Well, at least we won't be blamed for it. Woah, Hikaru, what are you doing?!" He asked this because his brother was currently gripping tightly to the bars at the window and shaking them hard before letting go and punching the wall in frustration.

"I'm going to raven, Kaoru."

"What?"

"I'm going to raven!"

"Hikaru, are you joking?!"

The raven. The call sign that was never meant to be used. The plea for help with a jail break.

There was a certain amount of honour amongst thieves, and the whole lifestyle was seen as a bit of a game, a challenge- and if you were caught out then it was fair cop, and you had to take the punishment; even if it meant a lifetime imprisonment or execution. Even if you could see a clear way of escape from whatever prison you were in, you weren't meant to take it- and to ask others for help… It was the coward's way out. It was a disgrace. You'd be shunned by your fellow thieves forever, even if there was one seedy and nearby enough to heed your call. It just wasn't done.

"I have to, Kaoru, I have to, she's in the desert and something big is going to happen! I can't just… She's there because of me, Kaoru. I can't just leave her!"

Kaoru, even at a time like this, couldn't help but smile. "And?"

Hikaru ignored him, and turned back to the window. "I'm doing it." He muttered, and, steadying his breath, hurried out the click of the magpie and then called out as long and as loud as he could with the voice of a raven.

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

Haruhi hadn't taken long to pack up some essentials. She'd have the rest brought along later, she supposed, when she got… wherever she was going. She didn't know where she'd go next, or what she'd do. She made have only lived here a few years, but it's where her roots were. Her mother had been born and raised here, her father had lived there almost a decade too before he got married, and even then, they'd left when she was born. They had struggled on in a failing town but couldn't justify bringing a child into the struggle.

Her mother had died many years ago, but even then, when he'd heard of the work that was being done in this place, her father had determined to bring her back one day. But he had been an old man, and despite always seeming so strong, had died suddenly some weeks before they were due to depart. She had come home alone, and in a town where she was friendless, she had met Kaoru.

Or was it Kaoru? She wondered bitterly. What if it was _Hikaru_?

But something told her that, that first time, it had been Kaoru who she'd accidentally sat next to at the bar. For one thing, he had a far more gentle countenance, and for another, he had been drinking beer; whereas Hikaru had agreed with her in saying he didn't like it.

Then again, she thought, kicking up sand, that was probably a lie to get her to trust him too. She should have known that heap of scum would betray her- he'd spent his whole time lying to her, no wonder he told the truth only when it suited him, in a revenge strike.

She walked out of the town and into the desert with only a small bag and without looking back. A bus ran out across to the other side of the desert, and the other side of the world, every two days; and she had lived long enough to know it's pattern. It could not be more than an hour or two ahead of it, and she could easily catch that up when they had to stop at the military checkpoints just a mile or two away. Of course, she could always head in the other direction, away from the desert all together, save herself the trouble and head in land, maybe go to the meadows and the mountains, see the snow.

No.

She didn't want to go and see the ice and snow now, only to see it melt away under the summer sun.

So she walked out into the desert instead as the sun began to sink into the horizon. It was strange, because she could feel vibrations climbing up through her boots and legs. This wasn't unusual as such, because it was well known that some of the most hideous monsters in the desert were the sand worms, blind and that lived in darkness, and that found their way to prey by following vibrations. As such, the military often sent vibrations into the sand to lure the creatures out and get rid of them in controlled conditions. The strange thing was that they rarely did it so close to town.

However, the military surely knew what they were doing, and Haruhi had other things on her mind. Angry, confused things were turning over and over in her mind. Hikaru Hitachiin was nothing but a criminal and a liar, who had used her without a second thought, deceived her, and lost her the job they'd fraudulently got her in the first place. She was angry. Beyond angry. And yet, as she turned her back on that town, there was something in her that was almost regretting, finding it hard to believe that every last one of the smiles had been false, every laugh and joke a lie, every evening spent in her company just to provide an alibi.

But it had been.

So she walked away, and she did not look back.

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

Hikaru's voice was growing hoarse. He had never done the raven before, wasn't quite sure if he was doing it right, and desperation was shaking his voice, but he was beyond caring. He cried again and again.

No-one came. Nobody came.

"Hikaru…" Kaoru said, tentatively. "Nobody's coming. Nobody can hear. It's over."

"No!" He replied, defiantly, and continued with the sounds. Kaoru watched him earnestly. His brother had always been stubborn, but to be so fuelled with determination as this… He stood, and in a second, a second voice was added to the volume and intensity of the call.

Hikaru glanced at him gratefully. But it was no good. There was no reply. No-one within earshot willing to help with the disgrace of a jailbreak.

Then, just as he was about to give up, the croak of a magpie. He strained his ears, trying to hear the next bird call. But it wasn't a bird call this time, it was the mew of the cat.

The cat. The worst enemy of birds and thieves alike- the question why. Hikaru bit his lip.

"Tell her." Kaoru prompted. Hikaru raised an eyebrow.

"And what birds signify 'I've sent someone to their deaths and regret it'?" He demanded, harshly.

"None." Kaoru smiled slowly. "But how about the other reason?"

"Which is?"

"That the person you've sent to their death… you like very much."

Hikaru looked away, ran a hand over his face, but when he took it away resolve was back in his eyes, and he nodded. He turned back to the window and made one simple sound. The call of a woodpigeon. His answer.

He wanted to be rescued because of a woman.

But that was not enough. Again, only the cat replied. For the second time that day, Hikaru was forced to use a bird he had never had opportunity to before, that he had so little practise of doing in his day to day life. In fact, thieves had very little use for it. The embarrassment of using it was beyond even that of using the raven, but by now Hikaru was too wretched to even care. What did it matter? No-one was going to be willing to come anyway.

So he did it. He mimicked the call of the lovebird.

There was no reply. None at all. He sank back into despondency. He had known, of course, that even the lowest of thieves who would assist in a jailbreak would do it for a fee or a challenge at best, but never for such a sappy cause- and while there was still daylight!

A few minutes later came the practised scraping of someone wrapping a chain around the bars.

Hikaru had been lucky. There was only one member of the Magpies passing close enough by, and it just so happened to be the only member of the Magpies who thought love a worthy enough cause to come and break them out. The only female member of the Magpies, a master of disguise, always with a new costume and able to charm her way into anywhere. Nobody knew her real name or even really knew how seriously she took the life of crime- but you couldn't argue with a one hundred percent success rate. She could probably do without people knowing her name. They simply knew her as Uki Doki.

A masked face at the barred window, whispered words. "Are you serious?" She demanded.

"Yes." Hikaru answered.

"You want to break out for love?"

"Yes."

"I don't know. People in prison aren't usually too honest…"

"There isn't time for this!" Hikaru knew he shouldn't lose his temper with their only potential rescuer, but he couldn't help it. "Look, she's out in the desert, and somebody's planning a big job! She could be killed, and it'll be my fault, and more then that she'll die hating me because she thinks- she thinks everything I said to her was a lie! I can't just leave things like this, okay, even if she _did _arrest me!"

He saw that the brilliant blue eyes inside the mask were shining. "Ah! How terrible! How tragic! But how romantic! Ohohohohoho! You must go to her and sweep her heart away with your valour! Promise me you will!"

"I will." Hikaru said. "I will! Just get us out already!"

"My friend, I just wanted to hear the story." She giggled and pulled the bars down. "I freed you five minutes ago."

"…You are good." Kaoru said, admiringly- he hadn't noticed her doing anything. Hikaru, however, was already out of the window and beginning to run down the street, not caring who noticed him until one man stood in his way. Even then, he may not have stopped if he hadn't been grabbed by surprisingly strong hands. He was about to punch the person straight in the face when he realised who it was.

"Wait. Are you going after her?" Tamaki asked, smiling indulgently.

"What… How did you…?"

Tamaki winked. "I lived a very different life before coming here. And, really, how many magpies and ravens do you get in the desert?" Ignoring Hikaru's astonishment he continued. "Now, listen, Kyouya's gone out into the desert after her; but he doesn't realise this place has been cuckoo-ed so he may well be distracted. Just try to stay out of his way."

By now, Kaoru had joined them, and was just as lost for words.

"How do you…?"

"I made some bad decisions a long time ago, before I saw sense." Tamaki said, simply. "Let's hope this isn't another." And he let Hikaru did so, and for a second, as his hand moved, you could make out a tiny little birth mark at the base of his thumb, long since faded, but that almost seemed to be in the shape of a bird.

On that note, the twins ran on towards the desert beneath a glorious blaze of orange; the first time the two of them had been out in the sun together for a long time. They could only hope it wasn't too late. It couldn't be too late for Haruhi, or for them.

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

"Haruhi."

She turned to find her old boss had caught up with her, and, figuring things couldn't get much worse, answered coldly. "Kyouya. Changed your mind already?"

"In a sense."

"Don't worry, I'll come quietly, but I can't promise not to beat Hikaru Hitachiin to a pulp when I see him."

"That wasn't quite what…" Kyouya suddenly trailed off. "What is that?"

"It's just the vibrations to tempt the worms. There must be an army base somewhere around here."

"No." Kyouya said, dropping to his knees and laying his bear hands in the sand. "You never spent any time in the desert. That isn't regulation vibrations. If I didn't know better I'd say…"

"What?"

"That a worm was about to emerge."

Haruhi cast about. "What? That's absurd. Where?"

"Right behind us."

And just because Kyouya was incapable of ever being wrong about anything, in that instant the sand behind them exploded upward, and settled down again around the base of one of the nastiest creatures the desert had to offer. Haruhi had never actually seen one before, but suddenly, she didn't envy the men of the Silent Division who had to go down sink holes tracking rouge worms down. They were blind, enormously long muscular tubes that were almost entirely composed of stomach apart from the two circles of long, serrated teeth that rotated much like a drill head to shred it's way through the earth. Or flesh.

However, Kyouya remained calm. He always did. Besides, he hadn't earnt the hated nicknamed 'Lucky Shot' for nothing. And what he could do with a dinner knife he could do ten times over with the tarnished enforcer-issued revolver. He put one bullet into the spongy layer of cartilage around the outer ring of teeth, and the thing squealed in pain, bleeding, and immediately disappearing back into the sand until the wound stopped bleeding. Otherwise, like the sharks of the ocean, it's fellows would be on it in an instant.

Kyouya, brushing sand off himself, was just beginning to holster his weapon and pass some smug comment when Haruhi grabbed his gun hand, yanked on his arm so that it was pointing somewhere behind him, and jammed his finger down on the trigger. A bullet hit another of the squealing worms that Kyouya hadn't even noticed in the confusion.

"Nice shot." Kyouya commented.

"It would have been a lot better if _somebody _hadn't confiscated my revolver…"

Kyouya didn't waste time answering, or even shaking off her arm that was still aligned to him, but jerked it around and emptied a third shot over behind her. Just to make sure, he emptied another into what you could only approximate was the creature's head, and turned round to dispatch of the one Haruhi had injured. However, the worm from earlier had returned, lured by the smell of blood from it's fellows, and more were erupting from the earth all the time. Kyouya fired shots off, emptying his cartridge and reloading it, but by now the worms were in a blood frenzy and converged on him. He continued shooting even as he was pulled down, buried under a seething mass of the things, over his face, crushing his torso, eating him from the feet upwards.

Haruhi was disgusted. She was afraid, and she was unarmed. Only problem was, there wasn't much to work with in the desert. She managed to find a slightly larger stone that one of the worm's emergence had disturbed, tossed it with an aim that was true, and hit one in the back of the head segment.

It bounced right back. The thing didn't even seem to notice.

Vibrations. That was it. The worms were attracted by blood and by vibrations. She ran to the top of a small mound that was nearby, stamped her feet, clapped her hands, yelled; and slowly, they turned towards her- and away from him. She jumped down, kicking the mound to ensure that sand would keep falling and keep the blind worms distracted a little longer, ran towards Kyouya. His face was visible again, and he was conscious, although he had two of the smaller worms, too stupid or too smart to compete with the others over the new vibrations, that were continuing to slowly eat one of his legs and arms.

"My revolver!" He groaned, pointing with his free hand to where it lay beside him. "Hurry!"

Haruhi pointed and pulled the trigger, but nothing happened. "No ammo!"

"There are more cartridges in my pocket!"

"Which pocket?!"

"The one inside the worm!"

"Oh, that's just _typical_…"

To make matters worse, the sound of their voices, and Haruhi's movement, had attracted the other, bigger brutes again. Haruhi froze, they both fell silent, but by now Kyouya's limbs were bleeding and the worms were slowly sensing where it came from. But then, a flash of red beneath the red sun, and quick as a flash, the twins were among them, rearmed with short swords they'd stolen from somewhere along the way, slashing and throwing and fighting.

"Hikaru…?" Haruhi said slowly, wanting to be angry with him for breaking out of jail but not sure if this was the time as he slashed at the beasts eating her old boss. He said nothing, just grunting and stabbing in exertion.

"We don't need you!" Kyouya was insisting. "We do not accept help from criminals!"

"Geez, I'm only trying to help you ungrateful-"

"We don't need your help! We're doing fine!"

"You're being _eaten_!"

"Hikaru, hurry up!" Kaoru called, hacking and slashing desperately, jumping out of the way as one of the worms darted forward, hoping to take a bite out of him. It turned instead to Haruhi, who, fed up of doing nothing, found herself grabbing Kaoru's shoulders, pulling herself up on him and darting onto the creature's head.

"Your sword!" She demanded.

"What?"

"Give me your sword!" She screamed. Kaoru threw it to her, and though it was barely more than a dagger, she stabbed downwards, over and over. The worm screamed and fell, and Haruhi just had time to jump off before the others could take no more and converged upon the thrashing, bleeding, writhing creature and, with much screaming from all parties, began to devour it. In an instant, they were all being filled with lead, and fell in a steaming heap. Haruhi and the twins turned to see Kyouya, breathing heavily, and with his gun in his wrong hand, attempting to pull himself up from ground level and standing on shaking legs.

"Not my best shot." He observed. "But then, it was from ground level with my non-dominant hand…"

They stared at him.

"Okay, how are you still standing?!" Hikaru demanded, as Haruhi got movement back and rushed forward to assist. Kyouya waved her away, glancing down at his bleeding leg.

"It's alright. Just a cut. I can still stand on it."

"Forget your leg!" Haruhi snapped. "What about your _arm_?"

"I know. That monster ate my trigger finger." Kyouya didn't sound too happy about it.

"It ate your _entire hand_!"

Kyouya was observing his remaining, bleeding stump with some interest. "Interesting. It seems as though the creature simply wore the bone away by running it's teeth over it continuously."

"Okay, seriously, shouldn't he be screaming in agony or something?" Hikaru complained, bewildered.

"I did wonder about that myself." Kyouya assented. "However, I suspect that the pain is beyond what my brain can comprehend and this is simply a form of shock. However, it should hit along with the blood loss any minute now."

"We need to bandage him up as best we can and get him back to town." Haruhi said, firmly.

"No." Kyouya said, just as coldly. "There's something strange going on here. Something big." He glared at the twins. "Perhaps these two can explain."

Hikaru held up his hands. "I swear, it's nothing to do with us. But I agree, there's defiantly something fishy- monsters don't come this far in land for no reason."

"I'm not going back to a doomed town." Kyouya said, flatly. "Bandage it quickly Haruhi, if you must, but then, let's get moving." Just as she always had, she followed his orders, still studiously avoiding looking at Hikaru, because then she didn't have to think about him.

"It seems that somebody- who knows who or why- is chasing the sand worms in this direction using the vibrations." Kyouya said simply, mind as always on the task. "Though they could be anywhere in this whole desert. We have to find them before any more of these creatures show up and head into the town."

"There's one way." Hikaru said, quietly, looking at Kaoru, who nodded. "Down the sink holes."

The sink holes. Deep, dark pits; tunnels with no light and cold empty air, turned rock hard because of the stones, too hard for the worms to absorb, that they let out at the other end had over time been pushed into the walls. Tunnels that would almost certainly show where the worms had started from, and the route they had taken- a route that would exactly mimic that of the vibrations. If the tunnels ended here, they almost certainly began, like a river, at the source.

Hikaru _really _didn't want to go back down another sink hole. Those two years had been some of the worst of his life, secretly swapping places with Kaoru in the middle of the night, taking it in turns. How people who had to do it everyday coped he'd never know, he almost went crazy as it was. Lowered on a rope into a dark tunnel, alone, in a darkness and silence that pressed in all around, and walking there, all but blind, no sense of time nor distance, until you found one. And then fighting for your life, or to extinguish it's.

He knew too many men who had died down the pits. Imagine his horror when he had found Haruhi surrounded by the creatures. Then he got angry, and he had forgotten his horror and terror in lieu of beating the crap out of them.

But now, the terror returned, and the last thing he wanted to do was climb down one of those sink holes. But there was no question of doing otherwise, not even for a second.

Who would have thought that he'd be doing something decent, just one more time? Who would have thought he'd be doing it for one person alone, and one who was so desperately avoiding looking at him?

Some things, he knew, just had to be done. Thinking too much had always been a dangerous occupation.

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

Down into the sink hole they descended. Down into the darkness below the ground. There was a steep, straight drop to begin with; and the twins- the ones who had done this before- assured them it wouldn't be too deep. But they didn't sound too sure, and the light was swallowed before the tunnel in the sand curved. Still, there was no choice.

"How are we going to see?" Haruhi asked, as they squatted around the entrance. "And what if another worm is coming the other way?"

"Doesn't happen." Kaoru shook his head. She didn't know how she could tell them apart so easily, when she hadn't realised before, but now the differences seemed blindingly obvious, though she could not put her finger on just what any of them were. "They're blind, remember, and stupid. If they hit another tunnel they think there's nothing there and return back into the earth. Thing is, it's much easier to sense vibrations in the ground. Vibrations mean sounds, movement, prey."

"And as for light, we generally had torches… Got one in your luggage?"

This was the first time Hikaru had spoken directly to Haruhi, but there was no time for awkwardness. "No, I don't." She answered, shortly.

"Then we'll go in the dark." Kyouya said, stubbornly. He had turned awfully pale and quiet- it seemed the pain, which must be extreme, was beginning to set in.

"You could do, law boy, or you can tell me if you're short or long sighted." Hikaru answered.

"What?"

"I think you should tell him, Kyouya." Haruhi said, shortly, and Hikaru looked gratefully to him, but she was looking pointedly away.

"Long." He said, reluctantly. "What's your point?"

Hikaru grinned, but said nothing, and ran over to one of the dead worms. He quickly took his knife, slit open the skin, and once through the tough protective cartilage it was relatively easy to work out some of the jaw bone, the long muscles and sinews that let it rotate still attached. "Hardly the best material." He admitted on his return. "But at least the sun is on our side." With all the light-fingered dexterity that had probably kept them out of prison for so long, he plucked the glasses from Kyouya's face, and focused the fading sun onto the gore which he'd twirled up into a crude bundle. Miraculously, it caught fire almost immediately and burnt brightly. "Bright flame- that means it won't last long. Let's go."

"Where did you learn _that_?" Haruhi asked, unwilling interested.

"I told you, I was taught by an educated man. We're just lucky your boss wasn't short sighted, or it would never have worked." He stood, brushed some sand off his knees, and headed to the edge. Last time he had done this, he had a team of people up top and ropes. Now it was a straight jump into the darkness. And he hated heights.

But, unlike last time, he had a better purpose.

"See you at the bottom." He said, and jumped. They watched, and by the flickering light, detected the jump wasn't horrific. Or it wouldn't have been, had one of the party not been bleeding everywhere. He seemed to be having difficulty from getting out of the kneeling position they'd all been in.

"I still think you should go back… sir." Haruhi tried, as Kaoru disappeared into the darkness. Kyouya merely gritted his teeth against the pain and weakness, stood, and jumped. Haruhi followed.

The tunnel was a little wider then would be required for one person- someone could theoretically walk next to them if they were willing to go sideways, which gave them just enough space to manoeuvre themselves into a more logical order. Kyouya did not trust the twins still, and forced Kaoru to go to the back, placed himself in front of that, and Haruhi, as the person he trusted most after himself, but who was currently stronger, in front of him. Behind Hikaru.

The air in the tunnel seemed to swallow everything. The light did not spread far, and words could not even seem to get from one end of the tunnel to the other. It was into this that Haruhi spoke, quite harshly.

"Why are you doing this?"

Hikaru didn't reply.

"Let me guess- hoping for a ticket out of jail."

Hikaru immediately flared up. "Hey, if Kyouya didn't like you so much, you'd probably be joining us!"

"He didn't like me enough not to fire me, did he? Thanks to _someone_."

"You can't blame me! You lied to him, hid your identity! It would have happened anyway!"

She snorted, and his words suddenly sank into his skull; and they continued through the claustrophobic darkness in silence.

"You arrested us." Hikaru said, resentfully.

"You broke the law. It's my- it _was_ my- job."

"And you were pissed with me."

"I was trained in neutrality, you know."

"Yeah, and you were pissed."

"Just a bit." She paused. "Why did you do it?"

Hikaru shrugged awkwardly. "The job or telling Kyouya about you?"

"I don't know. Both."

"…I don't know." Hikaru said, eventually. "I guess we did the job for the money, for the thrill of it, the challenge. I know, I know, we could have got honest jobs, but… And I… I told Kyouya because-"

"You were pissed?"

"Yeah, partly."

"Partly?"

"Well, the thing was, I-"

They were interrupted by a dull thud. Haruhi turned round, as did Hikaru, holding the makeshift torch out to cast light further behind them. Kyouya was on his knees, but struggling up, supporting himself on the wall.

"Carry on." He snapped.

"But, you-"

Haruhi's protests fell on deaf ears.

"We carry on!"

They did. Kyouya's word was law. And they trod further into the dark and the silence and the unknown, until it was too late to go back.

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

Light at the end of the tunnel. Or, at least, they were here, at the last place the worm had emerged. Perhaps it had heard the vibration of movement or noises and had come out to check what was happening, before being distracted by larger ones. However, there was only one way to check, and that was to look out.

Only problem was, the tunnel had turned vertical again, and the exit was high above their heads. How typical, that the drop would be even deeper at this end.

"How are we going to…?" Haruhi began, but Kyouya had already solved that problem. The rocks embedded in the walls provided plenty of easy hand and foot holds; and he climbed quickly, despite the obvious handicap of only having one hand. He seemed determined to prove he wasn't in pain, but the red, wet trail he left behind him; that had soaked even through the bandages, said otherwise.

One by one, they emerged from the darkness into light. Kaoru, the most able of them all, got himself up first, and helped Kyouya up before he was distracted by what was happening nearby. Hikaru was left to pull himself, and Haruhi, up; and she fully intended to break the contact as soon as possible, only she forgot when she saw the sight they were confronted with.

They had come out at the top of a sand dune, and down at the foot of it, there was trouble. Surrounded on all sides by the tall mounds, this was the perfect place- you wouldn't see it unless you were on top of it. And in the valley created in the middle, several amplifiers were laid flat on the ground. They were military issue, alright, but defiantly not on a military base. No wonder the worms, normally solitary because of the brutal nature of their companions, had been massing towards the town. The ground was shaking with the noise being produced, the beasts would have been pushed forwards, expecting to find huge amounts of prey when the vibrations stopped. Instead, just as these stopped travelling, vibrations from the town would begin, and tempt them forwards.

Kyouya's quick brain pieced this all together in a matter of moments. "Who did this?" He growled.

"Them, I think." Hikaru pointed to where some figures were huddled around one of the amplifiers, seemingly looking at blueprints. It seemed they were preparing for phase two of their plan, whatever it was.

"Oh, no." Haruhi groaned, sinking to the ground. "I hate these guys."

"What?" Hikaru asked.

She looked up at him earnestly. "Ever wondered why I left the town I lived in before? Even if my roots are here, didn't it seem strange?"

"Haruhi, get to the point." Kyouya said, shortly, on his knees again. His vision was beginning to blur. Curious.

"Well, I they were bad. Really bad. But they wanted me to join them, told me this whole massive con they were planning. Stupid, though, I said I'd join and as soon as they let me go I went to the police. Only, they got away too, and I thought it was a good idea to skip town."

"Who are they?"

"The Zukas- get down!"

Hikaru and Kaoru threw themselves to the floor as a bullet whizzed overhead. A cloud of sand rose above them on the impact, and their hiding place, suspected before, was now made definite. More bullets followed.

"Come out, come out!" A wheedling, female voice came. "Show us where you're hiding, little mice…" Closer now.

Haruhi gritted her teeth. They were there, practically unarmed, in the middle of the desert.

"We're sitting ducks here." Kyouya grunted, unable to keep pain from his voice but showing his thought pattern had been very similar to Haruhi's own. She nodded to him, to herself, and decided.

She stood up.

"Oh- wait! Wait, stop! Is that…?" Beniobara, the leader of the three, looked at her, surprise evident. "Haruhi, we meet again- ah, what have you done to your _hair_?!"

Haruhi, hands in the air and hoping she would not be shot, decided it was best to be honest. "I cut it so I could pretend to be a man and get a job previously all-male."

It worked.

"Haruhi!" She seemed thrilled. "I knew we could count on you to fight male dominance! Do you know, there's only _one _female in the Magpies? One!"

"The Magpies…?"

"Where have you been? The Magpies are the _elite_ criminal group! But they didn't let us in, oh no, because our strength isn't searching. But after a job this _huge_, this ruthless, with a town's worth of wealth, they'll be handing it to us on a platter!"

Here Haruhi made a mistake. She wondered, and she looked back at the twins. Hikaru met her eye, and she knew, right then, that he was a Magpie, stealing anything that looked valuable. He looked away again- was he ashamed? She doubted it. If the Zukas were pulling this big a stunt, what horrible, ruthless sins lay in Hikaru's past?

"It's going to be glorious, Haruhi. The town will die, the whole affair blamed on the desert creatures, and all the pickings reserved for us!"

"Sounds like a good plan."

"Yes." Beniobara smiled broadly at her. "But then, so did our last one, and you stopped that. And so, my dear Haruhi, this time, you won't be allowed to live."

And she calmly shot Haruhi in the chest. Point-blank range, in cold blood.

"Revenge is always best this way." She observed, watching as Haruhi swayed and fell backwards, tumbling down the sand dune and towards her companions.

Kyouya watched, emotionless.

Kaoru looked away, disturbed, disgraced, knowing the moment would return in his memories.

And Hikaru paled. It wasn't fair. Not when he'd come to save her. Not when it was his fault. Luckily, he was too overcome to speak, and ran silently to her, shaking his head, trying to clear the images from it. Other memories came, unbidden, she was always there, always in front of them.

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

_"Who's that?"_

_"That, Hikaru, is the picture of my late wife. She died a long time ago now. She was very young."_

_"If it was a long time ago, why are you crying?"_

_"When you love someone, Hikaru, it doesn't stop hurting straight away. Sometimes it never stops. But because you love them, you get up each time you fall and act as they would have wanted you too."_

_"That's stupid. They're dead- what does it matter what they wanted?"_

_"No, Hikaru, it's very noble; and it's the most natural thing in the world. We never forget the lessons people around us teach us, and we never forget the people we love. That's why we have to do our duty by them. We have to, or they really are dead- and so are we."_

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

Nicholas had died.

Haruhi was dead.

To do his duty.

To act as they would have wanted him to.

He'd do it.

He had to.

Or he might as well be dead.

He'd do it.

…In a minute.

His head was still shaking. His hands were shaking. His knees were shaking and he could not run properly, only shuffle. His entire body was shaking as he picked up hers. It was light, and still warm. He held her close.

"Haruhi." He whispered to her. "I never told you. I never apologised for using you. I never apologised for falling in love with you. I'll make it up to you, I swear."

And he did what he should have done weeks ago, and kissed her.

She kissed back.

He pulled away, shocked, and saw brown eyes staring back into his. He went from pale to red in less than a second.

"You're alive?!"

"And conscious, yes." She said calmly, sitting up. "Honestly, with those mad women after me, did you think I'd go anywhere unprotected?" And she lifted up her bloodless shirt to show not a lead plate, but nothing more than cloth armour. "Silk." She explained. "Woven in the right way, when it's hit at a certain speed, it's strong enough to even stop bullets. Amazing, isn't it?"

"No, you are." Hikaru said, still in a state of shock. "Where do you get this stuff?!"

She shrugged. "I read."

Hikaru turned to his brother. "I swear, I'll never tease you for stealing novels again."

"How touching." A familiar voice drawled, interrupted. "So this is where the rest of you were. Fancy sending Haruhi out there alone." She raised her gun, and her two cronies did the same. Time seemed to slow down. She was going to pull the trigger. The bullets were going to fire any second now. If one missed, the other two wouldn't.

Thing was, those guns were awfully close together, and his short sword was still at his side. No time to think. He took it, threw it, hitting the side of the gun on the right. It was knocked sideways, into the centre gun, which knocked into the gun on the left. All three shots went wide. All three guns fell into the sand. Haruhi grabbed them, passed one to each of the twins and kept one herself; and recovered from the winding and momentary stunning the fall had given her, got up. Sand fell in sheets from her, running like water. She cocked the gun.

"Give it up. That's enough."

Beniobara smiled. "Indeed it is. Unless you stop the vibrations fairly imminently, then the town will be lost. And you know what else?" She paused, savouring the moment. "Seventeen bullets were fired at you earlier. One in Haruhi afterwards. You're all out of bullets, and Knives here-" She jerked her head at Kaoru by accident, but it didn't seem wise to point it out at the moment. "Just threw his little dagger away."

"And saved our lives."

"From guns that weren't loaded?"

"You know what?" Haruhi said, calmly. "You're bluffing." And she shot the older woman in the arm. "You only fired twelve shots between you earlier. That means three left- one used on me, one used on you. I guess I've still got one left." She pressed it to the leader's forehead. "Now, are you going to come quietly?"

"Haruhi!" Hikaru screamed, and she turned. One of the lackeys had hidden a vicious dagger, and was only inches from plunging it into her back. Hikaru dragged her out of the way, grazing his arm on the blade in the protest, but otherwise safe.

"Now I've saved you twice." He grinned at the girl in his arms. He held her, heart beating fast, and added. "I'm sorry."

"I forgive you." She said, easily. "Helping out means you love the town after all, right?"

"Wrong. I love you."

And he might have kissed her, had it not been such an inappropriate moment, and the following interruption. A shot rang out, and the two turned to see the girl, who had been behind them, preparing to strike again, had dropped the knife, howling in pain, a hole in her hand.

Kaoru lowered his gun, grinning cockily. "And I've saved you both."

Kyouya, meanwhile, was still stuck in the sand. He was making calculations. It was hard work, pain blinding his brain, function beginning to disappear. He kept slipping in the sand and could not get to his feet. He had always been a man of action, but he didn't know how much fight was left in them. Haruhi had one bullet left; Hikaru three, Kaoru two. If the Zukas had all fired evenly to begin with. He didn't like those odds. But there were a few things he had yet to take into account. He began to move towards the amplifiers, and unwrapped his bandage, which had compromised the movement of his arm. Blood soaked the sand, but it hardly seemed to matter, with the fight that had broken out at the top of the dune.

Knives. Short swords. Fists, feet, teeth. Blood. The fight was vicious, no way to tell which side was winning, sometimes even who you were fighting. One of the Zukas grabbed Haruhi's arms, twisting them behind her back, but she used that as a boost to pull herself up and kick another in the face. She fell back, into Hikaru, who calmly pinched her nerve centre and one was finally down, eye already bruising and blackening from the punch Kaoru had given her earlier, hoping that the 'men don't hit women' rule didn't apply when they women were out to kill you. The unconscious girl, the one bleeding from the earlier wound to her hand, fell near where Kyouya was stumbling along, so he used all his strength and dragged her along to. Slow going, with only one hand, but at least gravity was with them as they headed downwards.

The other two were not going to be dispatched as easily. Punches, kicks, and all manner of attacks were exchanged, they twirled and jumped and hit anything nearby that seemed to be an enemy. It was vicious, brutal, basic, and may have gone on for hours despite the limit of a few minutes to stop the vibrations had Kyouya's commanding voice not cut through the silence.

He was standing tall, straight and proud, between the amplifiers in the valley, stump of an arm flowing freely into the desert sand, mingling with the blood of the unconscious girl at his feet. He swung it round in methodical circles as he spoke. "Zuka club!" He roared, as his blood splattered the sand. "Do you know the one single attraction that the worms of this desert will take over vibrations?!"

Silence for a moment as his words echoed away. It had hit with such force it had caused the sands of some of the steeper, more unstable slopes, to begin to fall. "Blood, Zukas!" Kyouya shouted. "Blood of your enemies' and of your friends! It will bring your downfall! Just because the vibrations are moving away from here doesn't mean the prey is! Not when it's bleeding everywhere! They know, Zukas, they know there will be blood tonight!"

There was another moment of silence. Then, screaming in anticipation, the worms erupted en mass from the ground. Never had so many been seen in one place. They appeared one after another, breaking through the colossal amplifiers as if they weren't there sending components exploding, scattering across the desert, the worms' screams of terror and pain mingling with the furious excitement of the others. The amplifiers were down, the plan shot, and Kyouya stood, satisfied, in the middle of the chaos he had created.

His job was done.

He could die with dignity.

…Theoretically.

They were impossible shots, to hit the one lethal external weak point around the outside of the jaw.

Haruhi had one bullet, one worm fell.

Hikaru had all three bullets, and killed three of the beasts.

Kaoru dispatched of two before he even realised what he was doing.

Kyouya pulled out his tarnished revolver. How lucky he was that he had trained his non-dominant hand to very close to the accuracy of his other. How lucky that his ammo had stayed in his pocket when inside the worm. How lucky that he was able, even now, to live up to the name 'Lucky shot'.

Twelve bullets. Twelve worms. And one left to go, driven mad by the smell of blood, and yet to choose it's target. Kyouya, meanwhile, had discovered how hard it was to reload with only one hand. He was still fumbling when the worm came down above his head.

He calmly shot into the internal weak point, and stepped aside as the worm fell.

He smiled slightly, ignoring how much he was sweating, the pain, the failing eyesight, the lessening adrenaline, the state he was in. That was that. Haruhi could probably handle things from here.

His legs buckled, and he fell, not stirring even as Hikaru pulled him up over his shoulders.

Game over.

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

Two weeks on. For two weeks, they had waited, resisted all impulse to run, waiting for their sentence. The Zukas had been taken away immediately, but they had remained. It would have been easy to run, the easiest thing in the world.

But, sometimes, the hardest things were worth waiting for. This city, these streets. And that girl.

Kyouya was standing before them again, as if nothing had happened except he had decided to swap what hand he wrote with. As well as the other one being made of metal. It was nice work. It couldn't move or grip anything, but it certainly looked impressive; and it was apparently designed for the comfort of the wearer. That served as the only real reminder of what had transpired, and yet, who could forget it; as he stood before them, looking stern.

Hikaru swallowed. At least the last two weeks had been fun. The townspeople had dropped their distrust for a kind of resentment cum admiration. They loved what had been done against all odds, their villainous ways of the past had enthralled them all, and their rebellious streak made them real characters.

Still, people wanted their stuff back.

Thusly, the twins hadn't gone out that often; and, by now, word had got around that Haruhi was a woman. People would fall into whispers whenever she had passed, and so she didn't go out much either. Actually, they'd all been staying with Tamaki, where he could 'keep an eye on them'. Kyouya's orders. Not that he trusted Tamaki to do anything more than run upstairs to where his friend recovered- the doctor insisted that his own house was too dusty- and tell him so he could track them down again.

But they hadn't tried, and now the waiting was over, and the sentence was about to come down on them. Kyouya sat down at the opposite end of the table to them, his metal hand clicking slightly as he rested it on the surface. He looked at them a long while before speaking.

"I've had a lot of time to think, this past fortnight." He said, mildly. "And I needed it, the amount of research and calculating you two have caused me." He nodded at the twins.

Hikaru barely had time to consider when and how Kyouya had managed to conduct such research before he was speaking again.

"Adding up all your _known _crimes, you're looking at a total of almost forty years. Thirty nine and ten months, to be precise." He said, quite coolly.

"Forty…" Kaoru breathed, looking to his brother. Hikaru couldn't face him, and turned away, but his eyes met Haruhi's instead. For now, they were too shocked to argue, to appeal. And, anyway, what innocence could they plead? What could they deny?

"Of course, it's unlikely you'd last that long in prison." Kyouya added.

Finally, Haruhi regained herself, and stood quite suddenly.

"How can you-!" She spluttered, in rage. "So calmly-! They saved our _lives_! They saved the town!"

Kyouya raised an eyebrow, and a hand. "Before you explode, Haruhi, kindly bear in mind both that I will have considered all angles, and that I haven't dealt with you yet." She fell silent, and he dropped his hands, leaning forward slightly.

"Now, logically, all the crimes were carried out by one man. Only, now we know there were two of you; but it would be impossible to sort out your involvement in each one. As such, you will only be serving half the sentence each."

"Twenty years apiece." Hikaru muttered, looking at Haruhi again and wondering if she'd wait that long.

"Look on the bright side. It's actually nineteen and eleven months." Kaoru said, blandly.

Kyouya gave a small, irritated cough. "Did none of you hear that I had considered all angles? The purpose of our justice system, gentlemen, is to make sure that criminals pay fairly for what they have done. Now, as Haruhi put it, you did save lives. I don't know what the going rate for lives is, but I reasoned that, assuming we live to approximately eighty, that's four times what we would have done. So that equates, logically, to four years from your sentences."

Kaoru gave a twisted smile. He knew Kyouya was pushing boundaries, trying to help. But still… sixteen years was a long time.

At least it was better than forty. He just had to focus on that, and nothing else.

"Then, naturally, you did save the town from substantial damage- and we'll never know how high the cost of it would have been, in money or lives. However, those factors, after considerable thought, amount to the approximate equivalent of ten years in prison. Which takes you down to five years and eleven months each."

"Six years…" Kaoru said, thoughtfully. He smiled a little, knowing it could have- and should have- been a lot worse. "Thank you."

Hikaru, however, only had eyes for one person.

"Six years. Then I'm a free, honest man."

"Yup." She tried to smile.

"It'll go faster than you think. Don't look so worried."

"Hikaru, do you _know _what the life expectancy in prison is?"

And an awkward pause.

"Of course, sitting in prison doesn't really do anyone any good." Kyouya commented, quietly, and all eyes were immediately back upon him. "How does that repay society? Why not put your ill-gotten skills and knowledge to good use? So this is the alternative. Working for me. You'd have to live in an approved building-"

"He means here." Tamaki put in, helpfully, grinning.

"Your freedom would be restricted, of course, and I would be personally keeping a close eye on you. And you'd be using your skills and knowledge in whatever way I required."

"You're asking us to snitch?" Hikaru asked, appalled.

"You have the choice."

Hikaru looked at Kaoru, who looked at Haruhi. And then Hikaru looked at Haruhi, and then at Kaoru. They dared to grin at one another, and turned to Kyouya.

"We'll do it."

"Good."

But it wasn't Kyouya's acceptance Hikaru wanted. There was only one person's approval he sought, and he dared to smile at her.

And she smiled back, and he knew all was almost forgiven. He wondered if she'd push him off if he tried to kiss her again.

"Haruhi, don't look so happy." Kyouya said, sharply. "You seem to forget that you were caught using a false identification for a very long time. Do you realise how serious this is?"

Haruhi felt his glare burn into her. Kyouya had respected the twins as rivals, almost, as a clever trick; but she had done nothing but dress up crudely, lie to him, make a fool of him. And he probably wasn't happy.

"The simple fact, Haruhi, is that you have to receive some form of punishment. But I am a fair man, that's my job. Given services rendered over the past few years, you're getting just six months. Consider yourself lucky."

"I…" She gaped silently at him, not sure how to react, as he stood and went to leave. His hand on the door, he paused, and turned, with the slightest smirk.

"Of course, Haruhi, you will be doing your sentence as service in the Enforcers."

She was taken aback, and then she smiled.

"Of course."

Kyouya left the room. Now, of course, if they wanted to be _paid_ for their work as well, their sentences would have to stretch out a lot longer. Many, many, many years longer. In fact, all things considered, their debt would finally be paid around the time of retirement.

He allowed himself a small smile. It was strange, how things worked out, when you actually stopped and thought about them.

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

"Daiki, you getting this?"

"No, I wasn't really listening."

Akira grinned at the bombshell he was allowed to drop now. "Ah. Well, guess what. They've larked."

Daiki started. "Larked?! What?! Who?!"

The grin widened. "The Hitachiins."

Daiki sat down suddenly. "Those depraved idiots!"

"No idea." Akira shrugged, and continued. "It gets worse."

"Worse? A robin?"

"Yes, but worse." A pause. "Owl."

Daiki swore violently. "I don't believe it! They… Why?! Why did they do that?!"

"I'm not sure." The smile was back. "Rumour has it that it's something to do with a woman."

Daiki groaned and rested his head in his hands. "To many a good thief has gone bad because of love." He recovered himself. "Well, that's another town off the list, then."

And in that very town, two brothers stood at the top of a sand dune not too far away, repeating the message again and again so that everyone around would hear it. The Magpie, to start their final message. The Mountain Rook and the Desert Wren, who they were. The robin, so protective of it's territory. The Owl, the sign of watching alongside the enforcers.

The lark, greeting a new morning with a new joy and flying free into a blue sky.

The final message from the Hitachiins, and many were disappointed to hear it. The twins had gone straight, and moreover were helping the law; and would deal severely with any who crossed their path. But it was a joyful song, and the twins- and Tamaki- were glad to hear it.

"What are you doing?" Haruhi said, approaching, suspicious as ever. "You're not hiding anything, are you?"

"Course not." Hikaru lied easily, winking, and taking hold of one of her arms. "Old mountainous tradition."

"Greet every new day as a bird does." Kaoru added, taking the other. "Now, come on, or Kyouya will throw us all in jail for being late."

On that note, at that time, the three walked arm in arm back into the town where it had all begun, and would all end, many years later. But not before Hikaru had taken Haruhi all over first. Not before she had found out for herself what became of snow; and not before, as they stood hand in hand up to their ankles in it, she agreed to marry him. It didn't end until Tamaki found a woman of his own, Kaoru and Kyouya too; till the friendships grew and crime was stopped, not until the heavy stone hearts were as light and free as a bird. The adventures lasted for many years.

But this one finishes here.


End file.
